The Tangled Flynn
by Foxmorgorth
Summary: After a radiation resistance experiment goes wrong, Eugene unlocks 'The Flynn'. Having been on the run for years a cure may exist. Is there a cure can Eugene keep his powers from General M. Gothel, or is there no escape from a world laid to waste by The Flynn? part of supersandman86's and Rumbling Night Cutter's Avenger's Continuum: 'Flynn Rider' as The Incredible Hulk
1. No Hope in Sight

**Ahoy everyone, this is Foxmorgoth, as followers of supersandman86's** **and Rumbling Night Cutter's joint work 'Iron Fury' are aware I am now part their joint venture in rewriting the top animated features over the past four to five years akin to Marvel's Avengers'** **Continuum** **(Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor,** **Captain** **America, The Avengers, Iron Man 3, Thor: The Dark World, Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain America: The Winter Solider, etc). As supersandman86 and Rumbling Night Cutter have 'Iron Fury' for the most part covered I am starting 'The Incredible Hulk' equivalent with Eugene 'Flynn Rider' Fitzherbert** **as Bruce Banner/The Hulk...** **and maybe another Avenger may or may not make his/her debut**

 **The Tangled Flynn**

 **Prologue: "The day I died"**

Two people wearing the stereotypical white lab coats are working in a highly advanced laboratory. One is a man clearly in his late-twenties, early-thirties at most, with light brown hair styled to match the famous movie swordsman Errol Flynn, he had slight stubble for his facial hair and had this smirk on his face a subtle implication to his overall confidence, he has the overall look of Zachary Levi facially with some Errol Flynn and Harrison Ford during the making of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' thrown in, in another life he would have been a thief with the dream of owning an island and not working the rest of his life and the other a woman... she could not have been more nineteen well by looking at her... granted she'd may resemble a croaky innocent Mandy Moore, with long blonde hair that even with all its braiding still goes to just below her knees, however she gave the overall aura that all she would like to do is see floating lanterns, also in the lab is an abnormally small, slightly anthropomorphic but adorable chameleon, which stays on the woman's shoulder. The chameleon has tied a loose strand of the woman's hair around its waist and is too dressed in a little lab coat. The man is taking off his coat and suit. "Are you sure we should do this, we haven't gone through all the chances, this could go wrong." the woman asks, her concern is not just the concern one has for their co-worker, this was a lover's concern. "I just have a bad feeling Eugene."

"We can spend decades going through animal testing and still not be at the prime apes. Rapunzel, Blondie, dear, we are looking at how this affects humans, and what better to test than human, also you know me. If I cannot put my money where my mouth is, I don't do it." Eugene says to the woman. Eugene then enters the area that was sealed from the rest of the lab.

"You do know gamma radiation kills, if you're exposed to more than 5 Sievert **[1]** you'll die in that room... or wish you did as you die painfully in less than a week." Rapunzel points out as she gets to her station preps everything on her end.

"I know the risks, that's why I am the one in here. You have faster response time than me, you can shut it off sooner. Alright: this is human radiation-resistance serum with gamma radiation to eradicate all human contaminates in the sample and injected to human test one with test subject, Dr. Eugene Fitzherbert, me. For the record my partner and fiancee, Dr. Rapunzel Von Corona, is conducting her part under extreme protest citing the dangers of exposure to gamma radiation, I think she's worried about my nose falling off and ruining my smolder." Eugene jokes over the PA as he takes one of the test tubes and using a hypodermic needle takes the content out and injects it into an IV bag and then puts the IV into himself.

"I broke you smolder at least thrice, and that's before I wracked you with my frying pan. Oh, and for the record, we should be on our honeymoon, Husband." Rapunzel counters emphasizing the 'Husband' as she readies the machine.

"Ah, the frying pan, if I recall correctly you're the one that invented me over the night and after she sets the emergency shut-off and decontamination to their most sensitive setting she says over the PA to Eugene "Alright everything is ready."

"Well just like they did in Vegas, Blondie, Light it up." Eugene orders humorously. Rapunzel, after she looks to the chameleon and it gives the thumbs up, presses the start button and the process starts, the sample is cleared of all the human DNA and such from its source and the serum works its way into Eugene's bloodstream, the gamma radiation does trigger healing as a slight cut on Eugene's left hand heals, his metabolism quickens...everything enhances... Eugene could feel himself becoming stronger, that he would be faster, have greater endurance, while not on the list of intended results but nothing Eugene can complain about because his body is suffering any ill effects from the radiation as the REMs **[2]** of gamma rays in the camber increase, the serum's intended result... but something goes horribly wrong, Eugene realizes to late that he miscalculated something... how gamma radiation would affect the actual serum... he can feel his bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, everything was growing. " **BLONDIE RUN!** "Eugene yells with everything he has... that is the last thing Eugene remembers... well what he has control over.

Within two minutes his body has grown to 9' feet at least, robust muscles, his face and everything widens and broadens, his skin shifts to gray and this body is full of rage. This new body does not respond to Eugene's screams of 'stop' as it smashes it way through, the lab trying to get out, unfortunately Rapunzel is in the way, but for some reason the body obeys one of Eugene's orders and only knocks Rapunzel to the side. The body continues to smash, and break its way out, along the way United States soldiers, under the command of General Muter Gothel the general that they got their samples from, and the General herself open fire on him, as if he was a suicide bomber or some other terrorist... but they only enrage the other personality even more... and Eugene is utterly blocked out.

Eugene wakes up, sometime later somewhere outside the laboratory on a patch of green, his pants barely holding together; thankfully it's during the summer, warm nights. He may not remember what has happened in its entirety, but he can connect dots. He heads back and finds an ambulance about to leave. "Wait, is Dr. Von Corona alright?" he was the EMT, "I am her husband, Dr. Eugene Fitzherbert."

"She's already en route to the hospital, while she's a little banged up, of the injured she's the\ least likely to die. Now if you don't mind." The EMT says as he shuts the door.

Eugene has as sudden realization, the military was not interested in his research into radiation-resistance... no they wanted to make an army of … super human warriors... an army of monsters and they have no ability to control them, period... okay Eugene knows he's not one to judge about morals or ethics given his 'less than legal' extracurricular actives in middle school, high school and college but still. He rushes back into the lab after he dons his shirt, he destroys all the samples, exposed to gamma radiation and not, he copies everything on the computers on to his personal laptop and to Rapunzel's thumb-drive, which aside from Rapunzel only he knows about, he doesn't have the time to copy what's on the thumb-drive to his laptop, because he has to put super-magnets next to the computers' hard drive... nothing can be aloud to fall into the general's hand... nothing can be salvageable. He takes his car and heads to the apartment he and Rapunzel share. He puts the thumb-drive into the one place only Rapunzel would look, he grabs his backpack and the pack for having Maximus carry things, he's not sure why he grabs it and puts everything into his backpack. He notices the absence of Maximus, his in-laws have him. While everything is happening he takes two sheets of paper and on one he transfers all his assets to his in-laws. The next stop is the hospital.

"Eugene, what happened, we cannot get answer from... Son why do you look like you're..." He arrives into visitor's room and is greeted by his mother-in-law, she's clearly at a lost.

"I didn't calculate something and there was an accident at the lab. I cannot stay long. Mom, Dad, take this, it's a letter transferring all my assets into your name. I need to see how Rapunzel's doing and I then I have to leave. I cannot ever come-back. Also take this, its a statement of no-contest; if Rapunzel wants a divorce..." Eugene doesn't finish, he doesn't need to. "I am just to say my goodbyes."

"Will we..." his father-in-law asks without asking.

"No, once I leave this place I can never come-back, here are my car keys. I love you both." He hugs his in-laws and goes to Rapunzel's room. Maximus, a Russian/Irish wolfhound size white furred Labrador, is in there resting his head on the bed, clearly concerned for Rapunzel. "Hey, Blondie... I am so..."

"Please... its... not... your... fault." Rapunzel says weakly in between breaths. She's in so much pain. "They want to put me in a medically induced coma, but they need your consent. I don't care about the pain, I don't want to be trapped in the darkness..." Rapunzel forces herself to say.

"I will respect your wish. Listen I..." Eugene is stopped by Rapunzel's right hand brushing his.

"I understand that you don't want hurt me again..." Rapunzel starts

"It's not just that, Gothel wants to make that serum into a weapon, that's why she help us get the sample. I cannot let them make monsters like I have become... I..."

"Pascal will track you down with a frying pan and break your skull in if you don't take Maximus. Maximus, if you don't go, Pascal will likely break your skull with a frying pan." Rapunzel jokes, but both Maximus and Eugene know if anyone would or could do that it would be the chameleon. "Eugene, I need to tell..." Rapunzel starts, but then both see General Gothel walking their way.

"I love you, Blondie, but I have to go now. I cannot risk going... that in here." Eugene leaves and the room and as he leaves the hospital Maximus follows...

 **Chapter 1 No Hope in Sight**

It has been two... three... four...five... years since the Eugene has been on the run from the U.S. Armed forces, Eugene has lost track, he's too focused on not having a 'Flynn' (that's what it calls itself... well Eugene has always used 'Flynn Rider' as his alias) episode, and currently he has been without an episode for 190 days... to date, a new record. Eugene has thinned a bit and his chin stubble has been replaced with a full but shaggy beard. He wakes to the licking of Maximus. Maximus was a birthday gift from Rapunzel when they started dating, both Eugene and Maximus didn't quite see eye-to-eye, but Rapunzel somehow managed to get them to. The relationship between Eugene and Maximus had seen better days, don't misunderstand, the two cared for and took care of each other as best as each could, but being on the run for four years and only having stayed in the same place for 190 the longest time and they both knew they'd function better with Rapunzel and Pascal, to Eugene's credit he always put Maximus first in finding a new place and made sure he had food, and to Maximus' credit he did not blame Eugene... "Well I hope you're here to apologize for last night." Eugene teased, Maximus simply grabbed Eugene's pants' leg and pulled him off the bed and onto the floor... it was not even a seven inch drop as Eugene only had a mattress, a low table, one of those heart rate monitors that fit on a person's wrist, a laptop, it's a custom made and he had it since before the first incident, on it was 90% of his research and the means to contact a select few people (via an encryption program from Israel... hey they invented text messages, voice mail... plus Mossad... enough said), a picture of Rapunzel and Pascal, most of it was worn and torn and folded over, but if you followed the folding pattern, Rapunzel's and Pascal's faces are protected, a backpack... satchel now to carry everything, a bag to have Maximus carry everything and finally his wedding ring, he had it off during the experiment and has kept it off his left ring finger because if he transformers it could either break or cut off the circulation and sever the finger, but he keeps it on a chain on a belt loop for his pants.

Eugene reluctantly gets up and gets dress, well puts on a shirt, he only has the one shirt and the one pair of pants, folds the picture and puts it into his pocket and heads to his job... he's a day worker at one of the soda bottling plants in a less than desired city or part of a city in Brazil. Normally Eugene is a cart pusher, but he knows how to fix most of the problems that may arise. But first he practices his deep breathing and other calming techniques. Its 4 am when he starts his day, he arrives at work early and is greeted by 'Hook-hand' and the rest of the 'Snuggly Duckling Gang' at the plant. They had traveled with Eugene after he as the 'Flynn' saved them from being killed by a rival gang, since then they've help him relocate each time he has a 'Flynn' episode.

The 'Snuggly Duckling Gang', while notorious for their violence and medieval barbarian choice of wardrobe before they met Eugene, the members themselves are actually nice guys, none ever wanted to be a gangster, but they weren't given much choice. It was not uncommon for them to break into song when someone says 'dream' in any language. Hook-hand wanted to play at concert halls as a classical pianist or as he so poetically puts its "tickling the ivories, 'til they gleam", despite having only one true hand, the other being a hook. 'Big-nose' is always looking for 'ms. Right'... but being so physically unappealing he's a hopeless romantic... talk about grotesquely optimist. Tor is a florist at heart. Gunther would prefer to design interiors, Ulf in a way belongs in Paris as a mime. Attila would love nothing more than to bake his sublime cupcakes. Bruiser and Killer both want to be tailors, via knitting and sewing respectively. Fang is a puppeteer deep-down. However, the most memorable, Vladimir, a giant of a man at almost seven feet, is a collector of ceramic unicorns. These are but a handful of the Snuggly Duckling Gang and their dreams..., well Eugene really couldn't judge, right now his only dream is to hold Rapunzel again, to watch her looking at the stars, to see her paint that one wall no-one will give it a chance to live, to just look her in the eyes as they rest on their bed, to run his hands through her borderline ridiculously long hair... and as much as he hated to shampoo it when they were together right now it was the thing he missed the most. "Any luck with the last flower 'Big Lug' sent?" Hook-hand asks they they put their working jumpsuits on.

"It took the whole thing and it reversed like at most half a percent of the cells tested on. I am out of alternatives." Eugene answers as he shuts his locker and punches it letting off some steam.

"Well 'Flynn Rider', it looks like you're going to have to go back to the States and meet 'Big Lug', I hear New York is great this time of year." Big Nose interjects as the lot head to their stations for the day.

"We can get you there in a few days, just give us a week to set everything up." Vladimir imposes as he shuts the locker room after everyone else exits.

"I've to go to Corona first, some data there, specifics that I don't have." Eugene shakes his head not liking the prospect, he had long ago given up breaking and entering, but he may just have to. He rubs the back of his head just imagining Rapunzel hitting him on the back of his head with her frying pan. _What is with that woman and frying pans?_ Eugene thinks.

"So you're going to Pennsylvania and some homemade pumpkin pie." one of the other 'Ducklings' jokes, everyone glares at him. Yes Corona is in Pennsylvania which enables the joke, it's still tact-less. "Sorry." he says sheepishly.

"Best wait for the results from that blood test 'Big Lug' wants to do. Maybe it's a dead-end and I am better off not wasting my time." Eugene posses.

Everyone then returns to work, it's a rather eventless day, until the plant manager calls for Eugene, one of the control buttons known to hang from plant's ceiling is acting up. Eugene is able to get the thing fix control. "(It should work for now, but what you really need is a a new new new plant.)" Eugene struggles with the Brazilian Portuguese, well mostly it's making sure he doesn't slip into Colombian, Venezuelan, Peruvian, Guyana or Suriname Spanish or the less likely Guiana French, not that the plant manager wouldn't understand. Truth be told the manager's American English is better than Eugene's Brazilian Portuguese, but still, if you're going somewhere attempt to learn how to speak the language.

"A new plant, I'll pass that on to corporate. You know Rider, you're how do you say... too smart to be a per Diem... I should put you on salary."

"No... no...no, I am happy with how things are." Eugene was absent minded for less than a second "Ouch" a jolt of electricity shocked him and caused the old cut on his left hand to open up. Eugene jolts away when he's able to, the wound heals by itself in seconds, one of the effects of the serum (as well as near superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, etc, he already had superhuman good; looks born with them) unaware that one drop of his blood falls into one of the bottles. The bottle is capped and packaged.

The rest of the day was without incident, it helped that most of the local 'tough- guys' were too scared of the Snuggly Ducklings to pick a fight with Eugene. The main reason for fights, Eugene has this aura that just attracts most women... it's a gift and a curse, was not so much of a problem until Rapunzel entered his life, then the main problem was deciding whether or nor he wanted to continue his that life of... how to put it delicately... women he knows will say 'yes' or attempt to win the heart of the woman who broke his smolder. Now the problem is not giving off an air of being too friendly with any woman.

Meanwhile, in her office located in one of the US Army bases, General Muter Gothel pours over everything that she has on Eugene, his life, his work, well what has been salvage, which is everything save the research she desires, the 'super solider' serum and how it reacts with gamma rays, his publications, his brief marriage to her niece/god-daughter Rapunzel, and reports of sightings of Eugene's other-self, the 'Flynn' (seriously), on a few documents are the seal of the agency M.O.O.N., they had the most reliable information, but there is so little to go one, even with the surveillance program developed my Haddock Industries, "Two years, two years, TWO BLASTED YEARS!" she shouts as she swipes everything on her desk in a fit of frustration. "HOW DOES ANYONE STAY HIDDEN FOR TWO YEARS?" she shouts and slumps back into her chair.

Not even her phone taps and email traces on all of Eugene's known and potential associates, such as her niece/god daughter Rapunzel, and that young, up and coming astrophysicist with whom he did that joint lecture on cosmic radiation; Dr. Vanellope Von Schweetz. Included on the list are the students from his last lecture on radiation, the most notable five were Henry 'Hiccup' Haddock III; heir of Haddock Industries and gifted overall engineer with an act for A.I., alternative energy and most recently taken on advanced metal suits; now only if he grows up and face the harsh realities of the real world, Aiko 'Honey Lemon' Miyazaki; a gifted chemist but very much mad, an 'Alice in Wonderland' mad, Leiko 'GoGo Tomago' or 'GoGo' Tanaka; a glorified mechanic, granted she's gifted but she's still not much more than a grease-monkey, Ginger K. 'Wasabi-no-Ginger' or 'Wasabi' Chief; a plasma expert but he's too cautious for his research to amount to anything and the robotics prodigy Hiro 'Hiro Hamada' Takachiho, but he's so much like his late 'boy scout' of an older brother, Tadashi and he seems incapable of accepting the truth that the needs of the many outweigh the want of the one, she may have to result to the same means she got the prototype of the 'baymax' to see what the younger Takachiho has come up with (granted the 'baymax' proved unusable, but still, maybe if there's a suit of armor but that would require a 'pilot') but that Skype call with Hiccup and the email exchange between the two could be promising down the road, sadly the miniature arc-reactor blueprints are written in Norse runes in Old Norse (most likely in riddles and the measurements in Old Norse units) and the neurotransmitter's are written in a combination of Kanji, hiragana, katakana in a very obscured dialect of Japanese(most likely in poetic form with the measurements in Pre-Chinese Influence units of measurements) [so much for civilian secure email. Well she'd have to give the two this, they knew how to effectively encrypt the actual text].

Also on the list just to make sure all middle-men are covered are Astrid Hofferson; a gifted test pilot the general had to admit but this girl things herself a Valkyrie, she's nothing more than a hussy, Stan 'Snotlout' Jorgenson; while a useful lab rat he's not much more, Rachel 'Ruffnut' and Trevor ' Tuffnut' Thorston; a pair of sadomasochistic masocho-sadistic imbeciles if ever, Fredrick 'Fishlegs' Ingerman; a gifted scientist but lacking in vision to have more than derivative work, Rapunzel's friend Merida Dunbroch; competitive archery 'what is this 13th Century England?' and the highly unlikely but cannot be ignored San Fransokyo Institute mascot Frederick (Fred) 'Fredzilla' Lee... enough said **[3]**. But Meter Gothel did not make it this far in the boy's club that is the collection of US Armed Forces generals and admirals by leaving anything to chance. Besides once her deciphering program finishes working though the blueprints, even if she does not get Eugene, she has two very rewarding consolation prizes.

Nothing, absolutely nothing about Eugene, where he is, how to find him, it's like Eugene literally vanished off the face of the Earth. The only possible lead is the disappearance of the better part of the Snuggly Duckling gang two years ago, but their associates and former members are either impossible to track down, unable to answer, or unwilling and General Gothel lacks the authority to make them talk. After reorganizing all the files she looks over the only file she had not looked through as thoroughly as the rest. It was on the Brothers Castor and Pollox Stabbington. The two were born on Bermuda and worked with Eugene during his 'indiscreet' 'Flynn Rider' high school and undergraduate years on a few thefts. It was worth noting at all the stole objects while never recovered by law enforcement were somehow returned. The three did not have a falling out technically, but they didn't part way on the best of terms. General Gothel puts the file down and leans on her left hand, she can either either admit she needs help from her superiors or make a deal with to get the Brothers Stabbington... for General Gothel it's not a hard decision to make. She picks up her office phone. "Get me Major Sols."

The phone is directed to the office of Major Rittmeister Sols. Major Sols is fairly tall man, at 6'6", toned muscularly, with a small mustache, and a commanding presence. He also is only person who wants to find Eugene Fitzherbert as much as General Gothel did... no he wanted to find him more... well technically he wanted 'Flynn Rider' but since that is Eugene's favorite alias. He was also the person you have to go through to meet with the Brothers Stabbington **[4]** "Ahoy **[5]** this is Major Sols." He says as answers the phone.

"Good Afternoon Major, its General Gothel." General Gothel says, cool, calm, collected, like she was in a bar and fanning interest in the man that is trying to chat her up.

"Sir, sorry for my..." the major stumbles as he tries to stand-up at attention, while he may not have to do that. Showing respect to his superiors even if it's over the phone has always been a point he made and it has always helped him.

"At ease major. Listen I need to meet with the Brothers Stabbington. Don't worry, Major, I'll go through all the official channels, dot every 'i' cross every 't' and all that stuff, this is a curiosity head's up." the general says calm.

"You know, Sir, we have held them..." Major Sols says as he retakes his chair.

"I know, for two years, arresting them on an unrelated crime from their relationship with Eugene Fitzherbert, and you have have made no progress in getting them to talk about how they communicated with Eugene during for the time of the three's association. I know I read your report. I think it's time to put an end to this seeing who is the alpha male because clearly it's the two and try... a woman's touch. Just wait for the official orders before you start anything, this way you won't be chasing your tail when it comes through. Well I best let you get back to... whatever you were doing." General Gothel hangs up and after putting the file on the Brothers Stabbington down she picks up the file she has looked over the most, while it offers the least to find Eugene, its is the goal. While what she has access to is a highly redacted copy of the file from the 1940's, it still provides what she needs, on it is written Name: Overland, Jackson. Rank: Captain. She mutters something, all that can be heard is 'ost'.

Author's Notes

 **[1]** Sievert is one of three measurement systems for measuring radiation and is the most accurate while REMs and RADs are easier to compute, 1 Sievert is equal to 100 REMs, 5 Sievert is 100% fatal to humans,

 **[2]** REMs are easier to keep track off when measuring radiation

 **[3]** these are only Gothel's opinions on each of these characters

 **[4]** I like how 'Brothers Grimm' sounds

 **[5]** When Bell invented the telephone he petitioned that the greeting should be 'Ahoy, ahoy' the word 'hello' at the time was something you shouted to get someone's attention when they did something like jaywalk in front of your carriage/car and it was considered a very crude thing to say

Author's Notes

 **[1]** Sievert is one of three measurement systems for measuring radiation and is the most accurate while REMs and RADs are easier to compute, 1 Sievert is equal to 100 REMs, 5 Sievert is 100% fatal to humans,

 **[2]** REMs are easier to keep track off when measuring radiation

 **[3]** these are only Gothel's opinions on each of these characters

 **[4]** I like how 'Brothers Grimm' sounds

 **[5]** When Bell invented the telephone he petitioned that the greeting should be 'Ahoy, ahoy' the word 'hello' at the time was something you shouted to get someone's attention when they did something like jaywalk in front of your carriage/car and it was considered a very crude thing to say


	2. Headway At Last

_The Viking Stranger: We're not doing the whole Marvel universe, just the Avenger's storyline. The main reason is that Marvel Studio does not own the movie rights to the X-Men, 20th Century Fox does, and while Marvel Studios wanted to incorporate The X-Men they cannot. By extension supersandman86, Rumbling Night Cutter and I can only make references to the X-Men in this, sorry. Thanks for your support, here is Chapter 2, so go and spread the word...(if that's not too much to ask for)_

Author's Note: I know 'The Incredible Hulk' is possibly the least popular of the Marvel Studio's Avengers Storyline movies (to be honest I didn't really see it until 2012 when it was on FX)... but come on…

The names of the members of Big Hero 6, I used is based the Big Hero 6 comic book series, Now Wasabi and Fred were trickier, for Wasabi I have his legal first name as 'Ginger' because in Japanese when someone says Y-no-X it means X of Y, in Wasabi-no-Ginger case it's 'Ginger of Wasabi', also in the comic books he's a chief (hence the surname) and is skilled with the katana (hence the K.). Fred was harder, because RNC and SSM have used Fredrick as the real name of Fishlegs (I would have gone with Fisher but that's neither here nor there)... so I had to go one step farther to 'Frederick' as Fred's legal name as for his surname... I would have gone with an Ainu family name (Fred is at least part Ainu in the comic books) but I could not find any and 'Lee' is the most common surnames in the world (Stan Lee providing the voice and visual reference for the depiction of Fred's Dad did play a role in going with Lee, sort of 'Well I cannot find an Ainu family name, here's my fall back.' If you know of any Ainu family names PM me or put it in the review and I'll see if Rumbling Night Cutter and supersandman86 are okay with me back editing... Anyway here is Ch. 2

 **Chapter 2 Headway At Last**

Five hours past from General Gothel's call to Major Sols' office informing him of her request to met with the Brothers Stabbington, Major Rittmeister Sols' footsteps pound the floor as he walks into General Gothel's office. He is greeted by her secretary and is shown in. He stands at attention and salutes. "No need of the formalities, Major. So do you bear glad or ill tidings?" General Gothel asks not even looking up from her desk, mostly so that the Major cannot see her smile. Also she was finishing the paperwork for the give she needs to take what she wants from the Brothers Stabbington. The response for her request was fast, she expected to wait 24 hours before knowing if she would be getting her meeting. She had put in her request only four hours ago... its great to be on top... well she may be a lieutenant general technically, but still.

"Your request to met with the Stabbingtons has been approved, you met with them in two hours. I am here to escort and br..." the major starts.

"I think it would be better if I go in with a fresh perspective. So shall we get going." She picks up everything she plans to take with her and walks past the Major. The Major stumbles behind her, this whole affair is highly irregular and the general's actions are not helping.

"If I may, Sir, how do you plan to..." the Major starts to ask as he catches up with General Gothel.

"Sometimes the only way to get what you need is to throw the dog a bone, especially a dog of war. Unless you sincerely believe you can get results by going once more into the breach." Gothel says and continues on her way. Major Sols does everything to keep pace, despite being a decade younger and in clearly good shape.

Two men, about 6'8" sit, short red hair and blue eyes the two could easily be considered identical twins, sat with their hands handcuffed to a table in an integration cell, one has a scar along the right side of his face and side-burns that were coming in well surprisingly, the other has a patch of the left eye. General Gothel walks into the room and takes the empty chair across from the other two. "I will get straight to the point. I want to know how you communicated with Flynn Rider during your three's time together. In exchange, I can see that your record is cleared and you can go about your life however you want."

"Castor, am I hearing her correctly, the infamous General M. Gothel is willing to give us freedom to know how we chatted with Rider?" the one with side-burns asked the one with the eye patch, apparently the addressed is Castor Wilhelm Stabbington and the speaker is Pollox Jakob Stabbington. 'Castor' nods. "Just making sure. One of his 'younger siblings' was adopted by a retired Mossad operative and gave Rider a copy of an outdated and decommissioned Mossad encryption program, he gave us a laptop with it installed. We smashed the hard-drive after putting a powerful magnet to it after we part ways. Odds are by now he got a newer encryption program, but still it would be an old Mossad encryption program." Pollox informed. This was the lead she needed, how Eugene was able to get around everything..."We have more, but first the drop of charges." Pollox adds.

Gothel puts on the brother's side of the table the forms indicating that the charges of distortion against the two were dropped.

"If a clear record is all you want then, we're done here. But I was going offer you some thing more; full reinstatement, promotion, honorable discharge and that's not even the best part." Gothel says as she puts on the table the letters of reinstatement into the Army for the two, the forms they two would need to sign accepting their promotion from warrant officer to captain and a guarantee for honorable discharge on her side of the table and looks at the nails as women sometimes do. "Well c'est la vie." She says as she's about to leave the room.

"What's the best part?" While it was Pollox who speaks, both brother are clearly intrigued. Gothel knows she has them hooked.

"It comes with revenge on Flynn Rider." Gothel almost sings, the brothers look at each other and grin. Outside it's clear that Major Sols is not thrilled with all this, while he may now be able to get Flynn Rider, but the brothers free...

Three days later: Gothel is going over reports when 2nd lieutenant Corman Müller, a man of average height with a basic soldier's build is allowed in. "Sir, if I may speak, Sir?" the lieutenant says sheepishly.

"Yes you may, Lieutenant Miller..." Gothel says

"No offense intended, and with all due respect, Sir, but its Müller... anyway this may be of interest to you. A man had one of those exotic flavored sodas, he died of a heart attack caused ultimately by a chemical reaction of the soda, mixed with human blood, an unidentifiable compound and slight gamma radiation in the actual human-blood-unidentifiable compound mix...the amount of gamma radiation is actually only marginally more than what makes it through the ozone, but because it was ingested..."

"Where was the soda bottled?" Gothel asks, she stops whats she's doing, she does not look up, but she gives the aura that she is listening intently to every word the lieutenant is about to say. The lieutenant goes through the file, slightly fumbling.

"Um...my Spanish is not very... I can't pronounce the city's name, Sir, but its in Brazil..." Lieutenant Müller stumbles trying to answer the general.

"Well Spanish wouldn't help you that much considering the language there is Portuguese. Its a fairly responsible and understandable but inexcusable mistake. Inform Major Sols and both Captains Stabbington, we're heading out." Gothel says as she raises her head and looks straight into Lt. Müller's eyes, a small but evil grin softly creeps on her lips.

Meanwhile on the rooftop of the 'complex' he's living in, Eugene is practicing a combination of yoga and tai-chi. He's surprisingly good, well well-disciplined is probably the better term. Right now he's actually about to finish his exercise, by engaging in aprāna, in yoga the second to last part of a full session during which the practitioner 'ex-sponges' the accumulated 'used energy' from the 'session' named after the antithesis of prāna, a type of life-energy not unlike chi. After he completes its he's about to go into the rest cycle when he sees he's not alone. The Snuggly Ducklings were all there. "Please tell me we are not moving again. Oh come on, I haven't... 'Flynn'-ed for 194 days." Eugene protests as he gets up, pouting.

"We got good news and bad news. The bad news is that apparently a drop of your blood ended up in one of the sodas bottled a couple days ago. Gothel's most likely on her way, the good news is that the tests on your blood that you sent to 'Big Lug' prove promising, it may be the cure." Hook-hand informs with a slight grin.

"We also found out that he lives in Corona, not far from the city's old docks. We took the liberty of putting everything you had on the laptop onto this flash-drive and we put a powerful magnet to it and everything." Big-Nose adds.

"Okay so how do I carry the flash-dr..iv..e?" Eugene asks as Big-Nose puts the flash-drive into a plastic zip seal bag pausing after each syllable in confusion as he watches.

"Its non-toxic and will not dissolve in your body. You may want to wash the bag before swallowing it down again." Hook-hand informs, the grin is not reassuring, he definitely got the evil look down, how he say it 'My sneer could curdle dairy', it's involuntary but still.

"You want me to eat that?" Eugene asks deadpan pointing to the bag.

"If you go 'Flynn' your pants may rip apart, you may lose us or vice versa, besides it will be perfectly safe in you for the next...20 to 30 hours, and who knows with how 'Flynn' runs and jumps, you may be on the other side of the Rio Grande when you're... 'Eugene' again. Besides the satchel with the laptop will make a good red herring. Mouth open." Hook-hand says and points his hook at Eugene.

"No way am I..." Eugene starts but one of the Ducklings is able to take hold of Eugene's face and keeps Eugene's mouth open.

"Mouth open." the Duckling says and looks to Hook-hand.

"Drive in" Hook-hand orders.

Big-Nose puts the bag into Eugene's mouth as other Ducklings take hold of Eugene so that he cannot stop what is being done. "Drive in" Big-Nose says with the task completed.

"Swallow." Hook-hand gives the final order and Big-Nose pours water into Eugene's mouth forcing Eugene to swallow the water and the bag with the flash-drive.

"Swallowed." Eugene forces himself to say, his voice is hoarse for having just swallowed the bag with the flash-drive in it. The Ducklings let him go and give him the bottle of water Big-Nose had. Eugene tasks a few swings and a few seconds. "I hate you guys sometimes." Eugene says, he did not want to do that, granted he was not given much choice in the matter, but Hook-hand and the rest were right.

"We'll let you finish your yoga. We have a passport, social security card, Pennsylvania Drivers license etc for you made out to 'Darry Len-Fin'. Not the best anagram of your usual alias out there, but it will get through all but custom people who actually know you." Big-Nose informs as he hands the documents to Eugene.

Eugene does a quick look and hands them back "I cannot go through customs of any sort, not only Gothel has it for me. Let's not forget Captain Sols, I think he's still not over my one-night with his daughter, nice girl Helga, it was a year before Rapunzel entered my life, she, Helga had just turned 18, a whole lot of the getting-back-at-daddy-it's-my-life thing. What a night. Granted nothing compares to Rapunzel and mine wedding night, but still what a night." Eugene slips down memory lane looking back at his 'Flynn Rider' life. "Anyway. Now I have to do the aprāna again. Just leave the stuff in Maximus' bag." and Eugene went back to doing his aprāna and the Ducklings left.

As he finishes his yoga and he is in the resting part his mind goes back to that night he took those students from San Fransokyo Institute of Technology with Dr. Von Schweetz out to karaoke. Well technically he and Vanellope didn't take them, he and Vanellope announced that they wanted to go karaoke...you know when in Rome... and the students in question showed up. Being the oldest he had to pay... but it was worth it. Two of the students stuck out they were at least four years younger than the rest... Hero Honda... or something like that and ... Hiccup Halibut...was it... nuance. What he recalled the most was that the two each had a crush on a girl. Now Eugene had just resolved to date Rapunzel and he could see the struggle of 'do I tell her' in the two. He advised them to tell the girls how they felt. His advice can in the form of him karaoke the song by Billy Joel 'Tell Her About It'. It was like part of him was screaming " **YOU GAVE THOSE TWO BOYS VERY GOOD ADVICE, IT'S TIME TO FOLLOW IT YOURSELF!".**

Eugene wakes to Maximus barking. Its night time now, well dusk technically. There is only one reason that Maximus would wake Eugene like that... the hound senses Gothel. The Ducklings had left the satchel. Eugene puts it on over his shirt. "Well we best part ways for now. You know where to go and what to do." Eugene says to Maximus. Maximus gives him a look basically saying 'Duh, that's always been the plan... humans.' Maximus heads one way while Eugene makes it looks like he got to the street level and but hides in one of the apartments one level below his room.

"He's on the street. Find him, tear this place upside down if you have to." Eugene knew that voice, Captain Rittmeister Sols... Gothel recruited him for her commando troops. Well in all fairness he can handle Sols easily, Eugene has been outfoxing the captain since his 'Flynn Rider' days.

"Don't waste your time. Stop following and try anticipating." that voice sent a different shiver down Eugene's back, it was Pollox Stabbington and if there is one Stabbington there are both and while Pollox was the speaker of the two it was Castor's silence that truly freaked Eugene out. Now Eugene could outfox any one of the four, and he managed to outfox three at the exact same time, but all four and they all had the same goal... well this will be a little tricky. Just then he feels the hook of Hook-hand on his shoulder. He turns and follows Hook-hand's eyes, it was to a secret passage out of the building and would put him out near the plant. Property damage prevention wise not the best move, but it would limit the collateral damage with regards to living creature.

"Go live your dream." Hook-hand says as he basically shoves Eugene into the opening of the path.

"Which one, The ones that 'happen somewhere warm and sunny. On an island that I own, tan and rested and alone, surrounded by enormous piles of money'?" Eugene sings, it was his 'line' in the song he and the Snuggly Ducklings sang... well he actually hated that whole affair, but the Ducklings hated his 'dream' more so it works out.

"That dreams sticks, the other one." Hook-hand deadpans unamused. Eugene couldn't help but chuckle. A little payback for having been forced to be part of the singing each time The Ducklings broke into that song. Eugene could never figure out how the lot did it the first time he meet them all those years ago, its like some musical; the whole random break into song and dance that while fits the overall situation if you think about it makes no sense. Eugene exited into the streets only a few blocks from the plant. He turned to the left and while Captain Sols and the Stabbingtons were a fair distance away, there guns not at the ready but still at hand. "Oh Captain, My Captain." Eugene jokes and bolts.

"I've been waiting a long time for this, Rider and its Major now." Sols said as he rushes after Eugene. It was a break in protocol but Rider had made this personal all those years ago. The brothers shake their heads and follow.

"We spotted Rider, he's heading to the plant. Sols taking the lead." Pollox says into the radio as the two follow. The rest of the team Gothel assembled makes their way to the plant.

As Eugene runs, trying to make sure none have a clear shot of him (US Army team tranquilizing Brazilian citizens while pursuing scientist, yeah that would pan out well... Gothel's obsessive not stupid) he's mostly in the clear until... wham thud thump...

"Well Don Juan..." it's one of the local tough guys, he and a couple of his entourage are recovering from the collide with Eugene.

"This is just not my day." Eugene says calmly after his own surprisingly quick recovery and bolts faster, he's heart rate monitor beeping... he's nearing the threshold of when he would go 'Flynn' by the stress on his heart, granted it's actually higher than most men his age, but still. Eugene manages to get through the fencing but his latest pursuers were not far behind.

In the plant after about four minutes of evading he is cornered by the locals. Two pin him to a wall and the leader of the group faces Eugene and punches him in the gut. 'Thank you for not hitting the nose.' Eugene thinks. "(Please...please... me..angry..very..bad)" Eugene struggles with his Brazilian Portuguese, mostly it's because he's been punched in the gut about four times, his body starting to change subtly and the infernal beepbeepbeepbeepbeep of the heart monitor.

"You bad angry? I bad angry" The leader mocks and knees Eugene right below the belt. Unbeknownst to the lot, the team Gothel assembled has made its way into the plant and were reading to fire. One fires prematurely and hits one of the locals. The other brush it off as he had a little too much to drink during the football **[1]** game tonight. They let Eugene drop to the floor and kick him while he's down. Eugene's eyes flash gray.

Eugene's body grows much like it did during the incident in the lab two years ago, but its over a few seconds sooner and he's closer to his normal size, 8'7" in height, slightly more proportional muscles a little narrower and leaner overall... he's still a huge robust hulk. Eugene is now The Flynn. The Flynn roars and throws the locals, he does not kill them, something that managed to carry over from Eugene. "We got a boggy, please advice." one of the soldiers request over the radio, clearly panicking.

"That's the target, use every tranq, you got." Gothel orders from the van she is using as a mobile HQ for the mission, clearly not happy. The soldiers open fire and nothing happens as the tranquilizers either bounce off of The Flynn or don't stick.

"No effect going live." another solider says. Gothel turns her radio off, steps outside grabs the nearest throw-able object and throws it with all her might, she knows what's going to happen. The question now is how many will be able to walk out of there.

Back in the plant after the first bout of firing live rounds, the soldiers see that The Flynn is unaffected, save for being more irate. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" While The Flynn is actually speaking softly it sound to everyone else that's he's roaring. The Flynn grabs a piece of heavy equipment and throws it like it was a baseball bat at where most of the soldiers were, they are pinned down and won't be able to annoy him anymore. A few more burst of bullets are fired upon The Flynn, there are two origins to them. One is from a single shooter on one of those catwalks that the managers' traverse, Major Sols. The Major doesn't let up as The Flynn looks and find one of those forklifts used inside factories and lifts it up almost with no effort and throws it at Sols like it was a basketball. Sols while is able to dodge the better part of it he knocks himself out on one of the pipes. The source, which is the much more sporadic and mobile, is the brothers. The Flynn grabs another pipes and throws it at them and it looks like it knocked the two out. The Flynn does not stay long and leaves the plant running and jumping, ultimately heading north.

However the brothers only acted like they were knocked out and once they heard The Flynn roar as it left the plant they got up and looked around. "Good call playing it safe. And there is the crown." Pollox said as he saw Castor picking up the satchel and pulling out the laptop."So who do you think won?" Pollox asked Castor, Castor slightly tilted his head to the left. "You're right, that thing did win, so best two out of three?" Pollox asked. Castor nodded. "Alright, now let's pick up the useless." and the two began collect their unconscious comrades. It was not hard to get the others to walk out of there and met with Gothel at the mobile HQ. "He dropped this. Before that thing arrived." Pollox informs as Gothel takes the satchel.

"Sir, if I may, we didn't lose him, nor did he lose us until we hit by something...something big. It through a pressure cylinder like it was a baseball bat and a forklift like a basketball. What the hell was it? And does Ri... Fitzherbert know it. Because when it appeared..." Sols is trying ever heard to not explode, he's justified to go off on the general but he's not crossing that line.

"That was Fitzherbert." Gothel answers offhandedly as she set everything up to extract everything from the laptop.

"What? With all due respect, Sir, you're going to have to elaborate." Pollox says as all three look at the general stupefied.

"No I don't. So Fitzherbert, whom have you..." Gothel says as she turns the laptop on. There is nothing, it was if... There are some things that are best left unsaid and Gothel's word choice as she shouts and she throws the laptop out the van door and the monitor and main part separated upon hitting the wall of the nearby building. She slumps back into her chair, it not until then that that she see one of those smart cards in the smart card reader she goes out side to get, it has a hexagram on it. She puts it into a smart card an external smart card reader, on the monitor the encryption program Eugene uses; the person that Eugene reaches out to goes under the alias 'Big Lug.' "Jackpot." Gothel says with a wicked grin. "Alright boys, lets pack it up and head home." Gothel orders and everyone nodded.

While this is going on, in Corona, PA located along Lake Erie, in the 'down town' inner city. A young woman, much like the blonde Rapunzel flaps on the bed in her apartment... no it is Rapunzel, only a couple years older (barely noticeable though) and her hair is brunette and short, there was no real order to it, it was if someone pulled it back and cut it with a piece of broken glass. The apartment is actually hers and Eugene's... well soon to was, she had just spent the last two hours repainting the wall to its original lifeless grayish blue. Thankfully her parents had high grade photos of her work taken, they also hired a cleaning service and everything else, they wanted to make sure Rapunzel get the security deposit back. She had for all intends and purposes moved into her parent's home. In truth the only thing the landlord could have issue with is Rapunzel's paintings. While it was not actually physically tiring, the emotional toll was what exhausted her. Each painting had its own meaning, some where about her life before Eugene, some where from what bits of Eugene's back-story he told her, most was about their life together. The one that was hardest to paint over was the depiction of the Sun's Gift Flower. Eugene actually etched it out, to him, as he said, it symbolized her entering his life, that she actually brought him to life.

She needs something to bring a smile, she flipped open her cell phone and looks through the pictures on it. They were mostly of Pascal changing colors to match his surrounding and whatever fruit he had in his mouth, some where of her and her parents when they finally left the U.S. State Department and started to be involved in local politics, some were of Eugene and Maximus and how they slowly got along, there were a few of Eugene and Pascal and how Eugene and Pascal grew on each other, some were of her and Maximus, Maximus and Pascal, Eugene and her parents, her second favorite was of her, her parents, Eugene, Maximus and Pascal just before Eugene's and hers parental approved elope... well her parents, Eugene is an orphan, but what really made her day was a picture of her and two toddlers, it was clear they were her children, a boy and a girl. Legally speaking they are her younger siblings and in truth only a handful of people know that the twins are in fact Rapunzel's, almost everyone believes that they were a surprise pregnancy... (well her mother was pregnant when Rapunzel was and she did give birth the same day as Rapunzel, but for Rapunzel's mother it was a stillbirth... it was if Fate declared she'd be a mother of one.) However if anyone actually looked at the twins birth certificates they'd know Rapunzel is the mother of the twins. The boy, Ryder, is very much like his mother, bubbly, cheerful all in all a happy child who seemed to have an act for arts and crafts. The girl, Flinn, is not so much. She's more down to earth, she also crafty, thief-like crafty. But Rapunzel doesn't want her twins any other way.

Just then she felt something vibrate. She reached to her pants pockets and pulled out another cellphone she has, it has a full moon on its back and circling it are the capital letters 'M.O.O.N.'. Rapunzel flips it open. Its an email from Junior(Probationary)-Agent Heather M. Hill, like her and Merida, Heather is one of the younger high potential female agents, she has the makings to the fill the newly vacant Assistant Director position despite still being a minor, granted Rapunzel and Merida have priority.

The email to anyone else was about the recent Highlands Open Archery competition, and how Merida Dunbroch won it while using a traditional yew longbow while her competition used modern bows and how she was almost disqualified by one-upping everyone by getting bullseye on the other competitors targets. Merida clearly has issues about bring home the point...pun intended. However Rapunzel knew the real message. Henry 'Hiccup' Horrendous Haddock III, was informed that Gobber Belch's body is en route to the Peppy Grump Funeral Home and Hiccup seemed to take it all well. (Gobber had listed Hiccup as his next of kin so when the body was recovered it would be given to Hiccup.) Rapunzel frowns at the news and thinks back to the mission. Merida was so irritated at the absent of not only Hiccup but of Gobber's credentials among other documents Gobber should have kept on his person she shot the whole place up... and Merida still wonders why she's only Special Agent Dunbroch, that gives Rapunzel a soft smiles, not that it should, but it does. She puts that phone away and ponders; had they left when Rapunzel suggested not when they were ordered by the now former assistant director... maybe Agent Belch would still be alive as for Hiccup... but she and Merida couldn't circumvent the former assistant director, if they went about it legitimately (getting the director to override the order) would have delayed them more and to simply go bind the former assistant director's back was not advisable because she and Merida were on thin ice with the former assistant director as it was. For Rapunzel and Merida the 'good' news is that the 'failure' of the mission was the cause of the former assistant director's termination. After a few seconds she knows she needs to focus on something else.

Rapunzel then puts her main phone away and looks at her left hand. There are two rings on her ring finger, one was her wedding ring, a simple gold band, it was her idea that their wedding rings be simple. The other was clearly a custom made. The exact metal Rapunzel doesn't know, but it is shaped to look like Pascal wrapping around her finger like an ouroboros but instead of the chameleon eating its tail the tail wrapped around Eugene's rendering of the Sun's Gift Flower, it's the ring Eugene purposed to her with. Not that Eugene expected her to answer when he asked as he slid the ring on to her right ring finger, they both knew he had eight years of experience and she was at the time 20, he would have gladly waited 6 years **[2]** , but sometimes you just know, even when you there is no reason. She also knows that she can divorce Eugene or get the marriage annulled because of 'want of understanding' but she hasn't and most likely never will. As much as she knows it hurts to not have Eugene, she's a tougher woman than most have given her credit for. However Eugene most likely believes she divorced him Rapunzel knows and right now her being viewed as single is best for her children. She puts the engagement ring on to her right ring finger and pockets the wedding band.

Author's Notes:

I am no expert in the procedure for dropping charges of desertion in the US armed forces, this is pure fiction so...

 **[1]** In the US the sport in question is called soccer, and if I am not mistaken it's a big thing in Brazil... to any Brazilians that know if I wrong, I am sorry for offending you.

 **[2]** Recent research into the human brain has uncovered that it is not fully developed until the age of 26 and it's not really until that we humans actually make our best decisions so at 28 Eugene is actually making the best decisions he can and he is allowing Rapunzel time until she's 26 


	3. Homebound and Experimentation

_The Viking Stranger: Sad but true, Marvel Studio's does not have the movie rights to 'X-Men' and for a while they didn't have the movie rights to 'Spider-man' (That was held by Sony and may still technically be... I am not sure on the details of the recent deal that may allow Marvel Studios to incorporate Spider-Man into the Avenger's Storyline... so don't quote me). As for the M.O.O.N. agents, I suggested Heather to be the equivalent to Agent Hill...neither supersandman86 nor Rumbling Night Cutter rejected that idea so I am assuming its cannon... Merida maybe Hawkeye... maybe ;p, cannot confirm that theory. No. Gobber is not Coulson, you may want to re-read Iron Fury because there is an Agent Phillip Coulson, Gobber in Iron Fury fills in for the role of Professor Yinsen as in the movie Iron Man, plus ... Now do note everything I published is deemed canon by supersandman86 and Rumbling Night Cutter... or not deemed non-canonical as in the case of Heather as Agent Hill, as for the time frame of this... this story takes place during the same time as 'Iron Fury'...I just reach particular points in the overall time-line a little earlier than supersandman86 and Rumbling Night Cutter because I am one author with only one other active project not two authors with other active projects alternating chapters in the joint work... not saying Rumbling Night Cutter and supersandman86 are doing a bad job in fact I think they are doing a fantastic job... but again everything I publish is canon... as for an "Agents of M.O.O.N." thing... you'll have to ask Rumbling Night Cutter and supersandman86... I highly doubt we are going to do anything like that because there so much with the movies alone... Wait and see what the data compromise leads to... I never said Eugene is the father... and I cannot confirm that theory. Right now all I can and will only say is that Rapunzel is a mother of twins... and for now that is all I am going to say. As for the twins themselves, you may want to look up the original German version of Rapunzel written down by The Brothers Grimm. Yep we shall see how this goes... starting now_

 _supersandman86: I assumed that everyone would use the Disney movie names for the human members of BH6 for pretty much the day-to-day stuff, the names I poss in Ch. 1 are just for documents and files on the five... you know legal stuff... the brain development bite was incorporated to help show the degree of maturity Eugene Fitzherbert (26 to present) versus his 'Flynn Rider' years (14 to 26)... yeah it's not that easy to write this... but in the immortal words of Gloria Gaynor 'I will survive'_

 _Sousuke Tenki: Thank you, it's means that I am successful in my attempt to keep the characters true to how they are in their movie while being able to remake them into this storyline. Thanks for confirming my note about Football (in USA, Soccer) in Brazil, my assertion is based on Blue Sky's movies Rio and Rio 2. The trick I have in my writing is that I am able to watch both movies (Tangled and The Incredible Hulk) on my laptop at the same time…_

 **Chapter 3 Homebound and Experimentation**

Number of days without 'Flynn' Incident: 194... reset 0 **[1]**

Eugene wakes up to see that he is only in his pants, and they are barely holding together, he's shivering because he's in a river. On the shore right in front of him is Maximus, the sun is rising in the east. Looking around Eugene has no idea where he is, okay maybe some idea. Texas Longhorns are grazing not 200 yards away on the side of the river Maximus is. As Eugene crawls on to the northern river bank and pulls his pants as close as he can to him, they have stretched quite a lot."How did I end up in Texas? There's no way I traveled like...5000 miles give or take in..." Eugene pause and tries to estimate how long he's been 'The Flynn', it takes him less than a second "11 hours or so? Could I?" Eugene asks Maximus. Maximus shakes his head indicating that Eugene couldn't have traveled 5000 miles in 11 hours. "So I have been 'That Flynn' for about..." Eugene again pauses for half a second for a quick estimate, "36 hours and I spent all that time running or jumping until I passed out here?" Maximus nodded. "Okay 5000 miles, 36 hours... that puts me at almost 140 miles per hour... Obviously I picked you up at the rendezvous point, because there is no way you can keep pace... so where exactly in Texas are we?" Eugene asks Maximus.

Maximus just shakes his head. Clearly Eugene has forgotten that the river that he was in is the Rio Grande, so they are along the Texas-Mexico border. "Before we go any where." Eugene says as he takes the chain with his wedding ring off of his pants and puts it into one of the pouches of the carrier Maximus is wearing. Maximus whimpers not liking that Eugene is basically giving up on his marriage. "I don't like it either, but it's safest with you. Now lets see if we can get something to eat?" Eugene says as the two begin walking north. Maximus taking the lead as they head towards what looks like a city.

A few hours later that day in General Gothel's office both of the Stabbingtons and Major Sols are greeted and brought in by Gothel's secretary. She shuts the door behind her.

"Sir, if I may?" Sols asks after he and the brothers take their seats in the chairs in front of Gothel's desk, Gothel nodded. "I... we've run into bad situations on … pardon my vulgarity but crap missions before. Seen good men go down simply because someone... not naming names... didn't let us know what we were walking into. But we've each moved on as best we can to the next mission, that's what we signed up for, right?" Sols turns to the brothers, they nod in agreement. "but that, what happened in the plant, is a whole new level of..." Sols stops at a lost of words.

"Weird, Major, the word you're looking for is 'weird'" Pollox chimes in. "And frankly we three don't feel inclined to step away from it, am I wrong Major?" Pollox asks, Sols indicated that Pollox is spot on. "In short if you're taking another shot at Rider, we want in. And with all due respect, this team should be prepped and ready to fight that thing because if is shows up, you're going to have a lot of skilled soldiers making in their pants, if you know what I mean. Sir."

Gothel smiles, she decides to it's time to loop the three in "Gentlemen what I am about to tell you, and I cannot emphasis this enough, is both extremely sensitive to the Army and to myself personally. It's no secret that our nation has been engaged in infantry weapon development programs since before Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Well during the war, there was a subprogram initiated that specialized in human biological-augmentation or Bio-Tech Force Enhancement, whatever term floats your boat."

"Yeah, The Super Solider, there was a comic book series about it during the war and into the 50's." Sols commented, having a good idea like what Gothel was alluding to.

"Yes, a gross oversimplification, but accurate enough of a term for all intents and purposes. It was put on ice in between 1943 and 1944, but I have dusted it off and got down to serious, bold work on it. In most subprograms the Army engages in, they try to arm and armor you better, make your tools better, I'm trying to make you better." Gothel pause and leans back in her chair. "Rider... Fitzherbert... whatever you want to call him, his work was initiation phase, figuring out and working out the kinks. He thought he was working on radiation resistance, and he was not entirely wrong. The main problem with the program I am focusing on is that we cannot replicate the actual serum and I have looked into numerous ways to get the chemical formula of the serum. In Fitzherbert's case it was seeing if exposure to gamma radiation can remove the human-bio-matter from the only source we have. I never told him what the project was, or rather what my interest in his research was I should say, he simply did not have 'the need to know' **[2]**. But Fitzherbert was so certain he was onto something, what his goal was finding a way to improve human's resistance to radiation, mind you, that he tested it on himself." Gothel pauses as the three follow her story. Their faces slightly agape when Gothel informs them that Fitzherbert tested it on himself.

"And something went horribly wrong" Sols says in slight horror.

"Or it went very right." Gothel continues un-phased. "As far as I'm concerned, Rider's body is the property of the US Army."

"You said he wasn't working on weapons, correct?" Pollox asks before Sols could say anything in response to Gothel's comment of Eugene's body.

"Yes I did say that." Gothel confirms as she straightens herself.

"But you were?" Pollox cuts to the point "You were trying other things?" Pollox continues.

"We managed to developed one means to get as close to the original serum as we can through a different program... I never put all my eggs into one basket, we would actually have the serum but the chemical formula has never been record, or if it had been it has been lost over the last 70 years. The process seems very promising, but when Fitzherbert ran we had to put it on hold." Gothel informs.

"So why did Rider run?" Sols asks, calling attention back to Eugene how things turned out the way they did.

"Rider's a lover, not a solider. Also he's a scientist, a thinker not a doer. He's not like us." Pollox weighs in. Castor nods in agreement. Well in part Pollox is right, but the three know that Eugene is more complex, Eugene is a man of nimble hands and quick wit, in another life, a thief-in-the-night. This knowledge appears to be lost on Gothel, but neither of the three are inclined to cue her in to that fact.

"How old are you all, 40-48?" Gothel asks and starts to get up.

"I am 40, Sir" Sols answers for himself as the three stand up as well.

"33 for us." Pollox answers for himself and Castor.

"It takes a toll, active military carrier, doesn't it?" Gothel asks as she walks around her desk. "Even without the two years of waiting for your court marshall?"

"Sir, is that question rhetorical?" Sols asks, not quite following Gothel, the same can be said for the brothers.

"Well Major you're almost out of the trenches, soon you'll be a colonel, of course you'll have to do your dues as a lieutenant colonel. But how about you two, why not get out, aside from the charge of distortion, your records point to good lieutenant colonel material?" Gothel is not really asking, she's testing the response of the three.

"If my country wants me to step up to being colonel, I shall step up." Sols replies, Gothel can tell that he will not be one to test the only viable method of 'Super Solider' on.

"We're fighters, always have been, always will be, for as long as we can." Pollox answers for himself and Castor. Castor nods in agreement. "Granted if we could put what know now and put it in the body we had when we were... what 20?" Pollox asks, Castor nods. "20, now those guys, I would not advice tasseling with, even for Rider even if he did go into that brute." Pollox continues, Castor again nods in agreement.

"I might be able to set something like that up. Good day, gentlemen." Gothel says dismissing the three, they salute and depart, after the door shuts " _Two out of three ain't bad."_ Gothel sings softly and evilly to herself. Hours later she goes into the cryogenic storage unit and takes out two of the four surviving samples of the source she has of the serum. Eugene had destroyed most of the samples and there was the testing of the procedure she 'perfected' on bonobo and chimpanzees, the human species' closest living relatives, then on death-row inmates near the date of the sentence's execution **[3]** and finally fine tuned on detainees in the US Military off-the-book military prisons. The human test subjects ended up starving to death, not because they were malnourished (which they were to a point given that they were in a prison in one form or another, but that's besides the point) but because they could not get enough food to fuel their increased metabolism... well you may lose some skirmishes here and there in a battle, but that doesn't mean you'll lose the war, Gothel rationalizes.

After getting what Sols know is a safe distance from Gothel's office with the brothers shortly after the meeting, Sols speaks softly to the two as the three enter his office. "She knows she's violating Rider's 14th Amendment rights, right?" Sols asks the brothers. "The whole, 'his body is army property' bit."

"I don't think she cares. So why do you?" Pollox asks. "This guy has been making a fool out of you since you were a beat cop back in Corona, granted we did help him for a while, but still."

"I may hate Rider more than anyone, and likely more than I should, but I have sworn an oath to protect the rights of my fellow Americans from all threats, both foreign and domestic. You made the same oath as did the general, that includes protecting Rider from being made a slave, now collecting him for what he knows about the 'super solider' serum and how it reacted with gamma radiation, his procedure, all related data, different story." Sols replies as he takes his seat behind his desk.

"So you are trying to reconcile what you're doing with your conscious or are you putting your cards on the table about what you believed you signed up for?" Pollox asks Sols as he and Castor take the two seats on the other side of the desk.

"The latter, I don't trust the general. Neither should you two." Sols says.

"Well we're heading back to quarters, see you around Major." Pollox says as he and Castor stand up and leave Sols' office.

The following day, Gothel leads the Brothers Stabbington into a hospital room on base. In the room is a doctor and a male nurse, a place to sit down and two hammocks that would restrain the two so that a particular injection can be given. Gothel walks over to the other side of the room and leans against the wall. The doctor and the nurse are preparing for what they are going to do. The brothers take off their shirts and each take a seat. "You'll each be given what we found to be the best amount, in the way we found to be the closest to the original procedure as we can. But I need you both to remain on your disciplinary A-games, ie if I say 'sing' you say 'name that tune?', I say 'jump', you ask 'how high?', etc, etc. First signs of adverse side effects and you two are off until you straighten out. Understood?" Gothel asks the brothers, it's not really a question it more of an 'informing the consent' if you will. The brothers nod expecting the terms. "The main side effect we found is that your metabolism will increase significantly, ie you'll be needing to eat more food when you eat and eat more often, that's the one drawback." Gothel tells.

"So we can't get drunk ever again?" Pollox asks, a little annoyed. It's not a deal breaker, but let's be honest there are times that being able to get drunk makes the nonsense force upon people during states of sobriety bearable.

"The serum and process we have is not permanent, it will last at most four to five months. We haven't figured out how to make it last longer. We simply lack the sample amounts of the serum and … a testing pool... as it were. So in about five... six months time you can drink yourselves into a drunken stupor all you want." Gothel informs somewhat dismissively and the three turn to face the doctor.

The doctor faces the brothers. "You both will be given two separate infusions, well technically three, two will be into the deep muscles in your necks and third will be into the bone marrow in one of the vertebra. Now the one into the vertebra bone marrow will hurt... the best comparison is something like both your kidneys trying to pass a kidney stone at the same time." The doctor informs the two. They nod in acceptance. The doctor and nurse first inject the serum in each brother's neck. Their both mouth an 'ouch' once the needles piece into deep muscles of their necks. They each then get into one of the hammocks facing up and are turned over. The doctor was right the injection/infusion (or whatever those medical people want to call it) hurts, it's like getting stabbed in the back. The brothers grit through the pain and after the infusion is over they breath relief. Each are starting to think maybe Major Sols had the right idea.

No one notices the small soft but evil grin on Gothel's face as she mouths "All goods things to those who wait."

"You weren't kidding about that hurting, doc." Pollox says as he gets up. "How long until the sting goes away?" Pollox rubs his back as does Castor. Castor's face indicating his pain more than Pollox. It maybe simply because Pollox expresses his pain verbally more than Castor.

"In about twelve hours there shouldn't be any pain, it will dull down in an hour. We cannot give you anything for it because your body will break it down faster than the normal human body and after a couple of hours the amount of you have to take would kill you even with the effects of the serum." The nurse informs.

"Well that's life." Pollox says as he accepts his shirt after Castor hands it to him.

"I'll let you two freshen up. Met me in the com-room with Major Sols in two hours. Oh and if you find Lieutenant Miller bring him." Gothel then leaves the room.

Two hours later in the com-room, General Gothel, sets at the head of the table with the Captains Stabbington, Major Sols and 2nd Lieutenant Müller (whom Gothel frequently calls 'Miller') with a few others, all of whom were involved in the raid in Brazil, around it. "As you all know our trip to Brazil was not as... fruitful as we had hoped, but we didn't leave empty handed. On the smart card we recovered was, as Captain Pollox Stabbington surmised, a decommissioned Israeli encryption program, in fact, as he and Captain Castor Stabbington confirmed, the one Dr. Fitzherbert used during his 'Flynn Rider' days."

"Excuse me, but who the hell is 'Flynn Rider'?, with respect, Sir." one of the men asked.

"'Flynn Rider' has been Dr. Eugene Fitzherbert's for lack of a better term go-to alias since he was... I want to say 16 but that's when 'Flynn Rider' got on to my radar when I was rookie beat-cop but it was clear then that Eugene had an established alias system for 'Flynn Rider' by then. For Fitzherbert, his use of 'Flynn Rider' is a lot like how the character Sam Axe used 'Chuck Finley' on the show 'Burn Notice'. In certain situations he claims a title high enough in the chain of command of whatever organization he claims to be apart of to have a degree of authority but low enough for almost no one to suspect he's lying about the rank. When he turned 21 he also used it as his for lack of a better term 'clubbing name' ie if he goes to a club or bar he says to whom ever his name is 'Flynn Rider'... I hope you get the idea because I really don't want to expound on this further." Sols informed everyone, this was already well known to Gothel and the Stabbingtons.

"As I was saying, this program allows us to know whom Dr. Fitzherbert has been in contact with. We don't know who he actually is or his location but we know his alias, 'Big Lug' which has been put into the surveillance program developed by Haddock Industries and the Ministry of... oh forget it, M.O.O.N. data-base. We also know how to find Fitzherbert, when he needs 'Big Lug's' help he'll reach out to 'Big Lug' and from that we can locate 'Big Lug' and from there and that where Fitzherbert will be."Gothel retakes command of the discussion.

"What if he doesn't reach out to 'Big Lug', he may know his contact has been compromised, with respect, Sir?" another officer asked.

"While we have yet to decrypt the actual messages, the volume of them and such indicate that even if the contacting has been compromised if he needs help, Fitzherbert will have to risk contacting 'Big Lug'. Any other questions?"

"What if Fitzherbert is able to reach out to one of his known or assumed associates and get help from them?" a third man asks.

"While standard operating procedures tells us to put watches on their debit cards, credit cards, cell phones, etc, Fitzherbert has been evading us for two years and for man as published as him and as clambered about in certain circles under his alias, that's no small feat. He's not going let them use anything that can be traced. So technically it's a wasted effort, but protocol is protocol. Any other questions?" Gothel answers and then asks. No one asks another question. "Excellent, in folders in front of each of you is all you need to know, brief your men as needed. And someone make sure the Haddock Industries Thunderdrum noise-cannons are mounted and installed properly according to the instruction manual, I don't want them to site 'User error' as means to deny the warranty." Gothel orders. Everyone does 'nose it' to see who gets the job, 2nd Lieutenant Corman Müller loses. Gothel doesn't frankly care who does it, as long as it's done. "Dismissed." Gothel says and starts to get up, everyone else beats her to their feet and they salute. She leaves first and the rest follow, each then head their own way. Now the issue is to find Fitzherbert, but shall be resolved soon enough.

Eugene and Maximus finally arrives in the outskirts of Corona, it had been a long trip... a day and a half of getting rides from truckers since walking into that city Maximus lead, but that took them only to Erie, PA (it is late evening of the day the Brothers Stabbington got the injections and the briefing). Eugene and Maximus had to walk the rest of the way to Corona and its nightfall when they arrive at the Snuggly Duckling Pub, Tavern and Inn. The two walk in the main entrance, Eugene knows that he can be recognized but while 'Flynn Rider' is not the most liked person in Corona, Gothel is simply hated and few people are willing to help her, the Snuggly Ducklings, former and current members, the least of all. The Snuggly Duckling Pub, Tavern and Inn itself is a bikers' bar and motel, a surprisingly nice and clean bikers' bar/motel and actually doesn't deserve the reputation of being a dump... but it's still a biker's bar/motel. For Eugene thankfully the only person present is the bartender Gretel Fetcher **[4]** , a man just a couple inches taller than Eugene, robust like most of the Snuggling Ducklings, with unruly hair. Gretel is a current member of the Snuggling Ducklings, but like the other members that did not leave with Eugene two years ago, he has kept a low profile. "Well Flynn Rider, good to see you again. What has it been two years?" Gretel asks as he walks around the bar and greets Eugene with a fraternal hug.

Eugene returns it, mostly because if he doesn't it would insult Gretel and he needs Gretel's help. "I have no idea, honestly I haven been keeping track of time based on the number of days I don't go... you know." The two let go of each other and Gretel seats Eugene at the bar and makes each of them a boilermaker.

"So you need a place to stay for a couple of nights. I got plenty of room. Hook-Hand and Big-Nose brought me up to speed." Gretel informed and the two drank.

"Woah...its been awhile since I drank." Eugene says recovering from the sting of the whiskey and beer combination "Yeah I could use a place to stay, but what I really needs is to get something from Rapunzel... how is she by the way?"

"Last time she was here she was alright. She's moving or rather moved into her parents' place. She's often out of town for one reason or another, no knows where she goes or what she's doing. I don't know if she's seeing anyone or not. When she's in town she works at the college as an art teacher, she also does commission works for the local shops, you know designs at the tattoo parlor, ad-work for all the mom&pop shops for tourist and the out-of-towners, so, she also involved in several of the ones that make things, like candles, sewing, doll clothes, etc, you know for seasonal work." Gretel informs Eugene. Eugene smiles, Rapunzel is doing what she loves. "If you want I could..." Gretel informs Eugene of what Rapunzel has been up to when she's in town.

"No, Gothel has her phone tapped. I guess I need to prep myself to do what I did best as 'Flynn Rider'?"

"Convince a random young lady to share your company at night?" Gretel asks a little confused, he's not quite sure what 'Flynn Rider' was best at, but during those years Eugene... how to put it sensitively... got a round.

"No, breaking-and-entering, thieving, fast talking past security guards, throwing steak to distract the dogs... that stuff." Eugene replies, Gretel and Maximus dip their heads forward slightly, turning slightly to right and narrowed their eye-lids, clearly saying 'yeah right'. Eugene gives an exhale of annoyance, they are right, "Flynn Rider' was better at... sweet-talking than thieving. "Alright, the... legally questionable ability to... obtain items is the second best thing I was good at during my years as 'Flynn Rider', I was still the best at it, however." Gretel and Maximus had to give Eugene that and shook and nod in agreement. Eugene takes the carrier on Maximus off of the hound and grabs the key to room number 10 and heads that way.

As Eugene leaves the pub three young women walk in. One has unruly long curling red hair, blue eyes, dressed in a dark teal short-sleeve shirt and pants, with a quiver with a composite bow and arrows in it, one has black hair braided and hung over her left shoulder, green eyes and she is dressed in nice, albeit thrift-shop clothes, the clothes themselves are a grayish-green undershirt with long sleeves under a short light brown dress over darker brown pants and over her shirt a tan leather vest, the third has short uneven cut brunette hair, in mid-length purple dress, with a pink top while with shoulders has no sleeves and on her right shoulder is abnormally small, slightly anthropomorphic chameleon. The brunette is the first to address Gretel. "Please tell us you're still open?" she asks and makes a slight quivering pout of her lower lip, the chameleon copies as best it can. The red-head rolls her eyes and the dark-hair girl chuckles slightly.

"For you, Rapunzel, we're always open." Gretel says as he puts away the mugs and shot glasses he and Eugene used for their boilermakers to be washed.

"Thank you so much, Gretel." Rapunzel and the other two go to bar and each takes a seat. "We'll have three horns of mead, to toast the memory of late old and good friend." Gretel obliges and after each has their own horn. "To Gobber Belch, one the best The Ministry ever had!" Rapunzel toasts and the three drink.

They break and the red-head toasts "For the auld lang syne we've had with him." The three take another drink.

"So are we going to actual funeral?" the black haired asks as the three put down their horns after the three finishing their mead.

"You know we can't, ministry policy, also Merida has that thing back in Scotland and I am on standby... what is it Pas... Maximus?!" Rapunzel asks as she finally notices the big dog after Pascal's chips interrupted her answer. She goes over and hugs the hound. "Oh I missed you so much." She says happily to the dog as she pets him. Rapunzel then looks up and it looked like someone just the other door. "Gretel was that...?" Rapunzel asks, the bartender nods. Rapunzel puts Pascal on Maximus and bolts out the other door.

Author's Notes

And cliffhanger...

What Gothel did to test the serum is by no means moral or ethical, legally speaking... in this alternative universe... it's in a gray area, a very dark near black gray but still technically gray... I neither support nor condone animal testing or non-informed non-consenting human testing, I mention it simply because if you want to know how something affects humans, you ultimately have to test it on humans, while pigs are a nice analog for testing weapons and armor they don't match on a genetic level and you can only assume so much testing on chimpanzees when it comes to drugs because despite having about 98% similar DNA there are things that chimpanzees are immune to that we humans are not and vice versa and its not until something is tested on humans can there be any certainty on how it affects humans.

Now when Gothel says 'Oh forget it, M.O.O.N...' this is the first time The Ministry of Official and Obscene Nature is ever referred to by the acronym 'M.O.O.N.' mostly because military... well US military anyway... loves to use acronyms when they can (I worked as a contractor to the US armed forces)

As to why Heather, Merida and Rapunzel are toasting Gobber, its the policy of the Ministry that agents do not attend other agents funerals but when they can commemorate the recently departed... but there are still missions afoot and currently for the three they are not on assignment

Please leave a review, maybe follow

 **[1]** Eugene hasn't keep track of time except in days since the last time he transformed and after each time his 'clock' resets

 **[2]** To have access to classified information there are two things a person needs, the security clearance (pretty straight forward) and 'the need to know' which means that without the information you cannot do your job... however just having 'the need to know' doesn't always (almost never expect in fiction) gets the security clearance requirement overwritten...

 **[3]** It's a common grammatical error in American English colloquialism that people say that when a death sentence is carried out (executed) the 'person is executed'... yeah American English can be stupid like that...

 **[4]** Gretel is the name of the guy Hook-Hand tells to fetch some guards, so Fetcher as his surname... not terribly creative of a name I know, cut me some slack here, not everything can be Grade A 


	4. Shrimish

Author's note: I know I said I wouldn't post Ch. 4 of The Tangled Flynn until after Ch. 8 of The Iron Fury had been published, but real life has been rough for the authors and I have other projects I am working on and there is a lot for us all to cover in the Avengers' Continuum AU, so I am sorry but I have to break that promise

 _The Viking Stranger: My error, I apologies if I have belittled you and such, what I did was wrong. I am sorry. I am assuming that Agent Phil Coulson as SSM and RNC are writing him will be like how he is in the movies. I am not sure how many X-Men references are going to be made... or Spider-Man or Fantastic Four or... well you get the idea. The 'user error' disclaimer is again one of those things I have suggested and have not been deem non-canonical. I included it because lets be honest people do things that negate warranties and Gothel is one of those people that read the fine print. Glad to know you enjoy the story... I am still going to tease you about the revelation of the twins a little longer, for that I am not sorry_

 _Souske Tenki: I am glad you like the progression. I am not sure how legal Gothel's actions would actually be... most likely exploiting a loop-hole. We each have our own methods, you do what works. BTW thanks for the beta-reading not only in TFM but here and I look forward to working with you again after completing the Draconic Park/World project_

 _SharKohen: I am glad you like the plot and how I am writing it_

 _Sarnakh the Sunderer: I don't remember that line from the game, but its been a while since I have played it. I can picture what you are describing but it's not consistent with Gothel's character... still funny_

 _HiccupHaddockIII: Thank you, I hope you enjoy this and the next few ch._

 **Ch. 4 Skirmish**

 **Ch. 4 Skirmish**

As Eugene returned from putting his stuff into the room, he sees three young women at the bar, the black-haired one he has no idea who she is, the redhead he thinks is Merida Du'mor **[1]**... or something like, a friend of Rapunzel, but the third he recognizes, even without her long blonde hair or the frog **[2]** on her shoulder recognize her. He's not ready to meet Rapunzel and he speed walks out the other door while they toast to the memory of someone they called 'Gobber'. It starts to rain, it's not heavy, but it's not light either. He thinks he has evaded Rapunzel for now until as he walks the street he hears Rapunzel calls out.

Rapunzel kept pace with Eugene, well at least enough to keep Eugene in her sights, and she calls out to Eugene, his back to her as the rain pours down. "Eugene, wait... _All those days watching from the windows. All those years outside looking in, all that time never even knowing just how blind I've been. Now I'm here, blinking in the starlight. Now I'm here, suddenly I see. Standing here, it's oh, so clear, I'm where I'm meant to be. And at last I see the light. And it's like the fog has lifted, and at last I see the light. And it's like the sky is new. And it's warm and real and bright and the world has somehow shifted. All at once everything looks different now that I see you_." **[3]** She sings her part of their song, hoping beyond hope, beyond reason, beyond logic, that he would respond aside from freezing when she started sing. Nothing... she looks down and turns away in dejection and is about to walk away. They say the first cut is the deepest, that the first break is the hardest... what lies. Rapunzel thinks as she starts to walk away. She feels not only the rain, but tears on her cheeks. Suddenly she is grabbed from behind and recognizes the arms as they hold her close to their owner.

" _All those days chasing down a daydream, all those years living in a blur, all that time never truly seeing things the way they were. Now she's here, standing in the starlight, now she's here and suddenly I know. If she's here, it's crystal clear I'm where I'm meant to go. And at last I see the light. And it's like the fog has lifted, and at last I see the light. And it's like the sky is new. And it's warm and real and bright and the world has somehow shifted. All at once everything looks different now that I see you_." **[4]** Eugene sings, softly as he turns Rapunzel around to face him and as he wipes the tears from her eyes.

"A _nd at last I see the light. And it's like the fog has lifted, and at last I see the light. And it's like the sky is new. And it's warm and real and bright and the world has somehow shifted. All at once everything looks different now that I see you. Now that I... see you."_ **[4]** The couple duets as a wave of happiness rushes over both. This was right, each in the other's arms, their slowly synchronizing heart beats, and they each pull the other closer until they kiss. Nothing tastes sweeter to Eugene than Rapunzel's lips. He was finally home...

"Did I ever tell you I have a thing for brunettes?" Eugene says with a small smirk on his lips after they break the kiss and look into each other's eyes. Rapunzel softly punches him in the left shoulder a soft smile on her own face.

"No you never did, I thought you like a girl's hair long and blonde like all guys." Rapunzel teases playfully Eugene pulls her into his chest.

"I actually hated how long your hair was then," Eugene starts and Rapunzel faces him, a little annoyed at the last thing he said. "Don't narrow your eyes and look at me like that. You've shampooed, combed, brushed and everything to care for it, so you know how difficult it was to take care of." Eugene tries to reason, while it does soften Rapunzel's overall mode she's still a little annoyed. "But to be honest during the last … two years, the thing I missed the most was washing your hair. Wow when I was your age I never figured I become such a sap." Eugene says the last part trying to make the situation lighter.

"Really, you're going to shorten this moment with that?" Rapunzel asks, but she too is joking. They both know this moment is perfect and that it will be over, but not now. "We should head back; I want to introduce you to a couple of people." Rapunzel says as she takes Eugene's left hand and pulls him back to the pub. Its then that Eugene notices that Rapunzel is still barefooted... somethings never change.

In the pub as Rapunzel and Eugene enter, "So let me see if I got this, assuming Gobber died in battle, which he did and the afterlife is like how your ancestors viewed it, he has a 50/50 shot at getting into Valhalla, where during the day he'd fight with the other Einherjar, and at night he eat his fill of the meat from Sæhrímnir, a beast no-one really knows what it is but often depicted as a pig and drink his fill of mead that comes from the udder of a she-goat called Heiðrún that eats the leaves of the tree growing next to the hall and if he's really lucky he can be sent back to the living to fight the enemies of the gods **[5]** Talk about a culture of violence." Merida says and takes a long drink of her current order, Scottish whiskey.

"And what about your Celtic-forefathers, death being a rest period." Heather points out and has some akevitt **[6]** , which she ordered in Rapunzel's absence.

"Well that actually makes much more sense, can you image the strain on the soul to keep a body functioning as it should for about 75 years, well maybe 50 something in Gobber's case, and then spend half your time until the end fighting and getting plastered the other half. At least for us, death being sleep for the soul in the Other-world at the end of each life allows for it to function in all of its future bodies **[7]**."

"Are you guys arguing about the afterlife again?" Rapunzel questions before she gives a 'ha' of exhaustion, "Can we at least agree to the fact that we disagree on the after-life and focus on what's in front of us?" Rapunzel asks, trying not so much to keep the peace, but get the focus to be on what matters presently.

"Say's the one whose god got himself nailed to a tree." Heather says confrontational... yep she can a mean-drunk.

"Oh don't rope her into this; this is between you and me. And to her defense at least her god doesn't end up in the belly of a wolf or felled by a snake bite or my personal favorite; is done in by mistletoe." Merida too can be a mean drunk.

"Let me guess, your beliefs are a modern version of the Vikings' and yours are of the Celts' and I take it you both are mean drunks." Eugene surmises given the back and forth of the two other women.

"Eugene, the fiery red-head is Merida Dunbroch. I told you about her."

"I thought her last name was Du'mor... wow I was not even close. And the dark-haired?" Eugene asks as calls attention to Heather.

"Heather Hill, we... work together from time to time, well Merida and I more often than the three of us or me with Heather. We're here to toast the memory of a late co-worker. And it looks like the two got themselves into another religious debate. Sorry about that." Rapunzel says and leans her head toward the right clearly apologetic.

"No problem. Myself... well... can we talk alone... in private... how about my room." Eugene says taking Rapunzel's wrist and leading her into his room after looking at the two other women. Nothing against them, but he hasn't known them long enough to trust them. He shuts the door behind him after pulling Rapunzel into the room, unwittingly he as he turns and lets go of Rapunzel, the momentum he generated cause her to go onto the bed.

"Can't wait a few more minutes?" Rapunzel teases as she stretches on the bed as women are known to do to torment men.

Eugene turns to see her, gives a dismissive puff and says "Please, I taught you everything you know about seduction. I've been seducing women from when I was 16 to 28 and fair number of time it involved making the woman believe she was seducing me. No, I am not here for that. I have been in contact with someone, his alias is 'Big Lug' and there may be a cure... at least for turning into that form of me. But I need to send him the data I transferred into your flash-drive, the one with the looks like you're frog with the Sun's Gift Flower one it."

"Pascal's a chameleon, but yes. I found it in the pot. I haven't told anyone about it and I never used it since I found it there. I do keep it with me. Hopefully so that we could figure what exactly..." Rapunzel says as she takes the flash-drive in question out of a pocket in her dress.

"I know what went wrong. The reaction of whatever was in the sample aside from human-bio-matter, to gamma radiation, now the 'how' is a different story. On a different note what you have that I haven't shared with 'Big Lug' are the exposure levels, gamma concentration, cell saturation, etc. I just need a way to send it. I got two encryption programs on my flash-drive, I just need a computer."

"You have two encryption programs?" Rapunzel asks confused, not so much that Eugene had an encryption program for communication, the legality of some his activities when he went under 'Flynn Rider' was up in the air so if he didn't have one Gothel would have found him by now. But two programs?

"I figured that my usual one would someday be compromised so I have a fallback. The Snuggling Ducklings forgot to take out the smart-card with my program out of my laptop, a well-meaning lot but not the brightest bulb in the room. So of course it's been compromise." Eugene says as he accepts the flash-drive. "Now I just need a computer... do you still have that laptop-tablet combination thing I gave you your third week on the job; the one I said to never ever go on-line with it?" Eugene asks.

"You mean the Haddock Industries Smothering Smokebreath, it's in my satchel. I'll be right back." Rapunzel says as she gets off the bed and leaves. She's back in a few seconds, just long enough for her to get the satchel from her seat at the bar and return. Following her is Maximus with Pascal on his back nestled in the space between his shoulders. "I never could figure out the password to the settings." Rapunzel says as she takes out the laptop and hands it to Eugene. "I tried my birthday, your birthday, the day you entered the orphanage, the day you left it, the day you started going by 'Flynn Rider', the day you stopped using the alias for the most part, the day we got our tattoos, our anniversary, the day I started working, the day of our first date, all alpha-numeric-symbol combinations, with and without the caps being locked mind you; for 'Blondie', 'sunflower', 'Flynnigan'... well you get the idea. None worked." Rapunzel says as Eugene turns the computer on and goes to the settings.

"Did you try the date of the lecture I gave that you attended?" Eugene asks as he inputs it into the computer and gets into the settings, "And no I didn't remember the date... originally, but I can't forget the day itself. I had to look at my schedule for that year but, you made quit the impression, and it was not you hair." Eugene says as he installs his fallback encryption program from the flash-drive he brought with him after taking it out of the carrier that Maximus wears. Why it never occurred to Hook-hand and the others to put the drive there in the first place is beyond Eugene. He then puts in Rapunzel's flash-drive and turns on the encryption program before enabling the WI-FI connection and getting connected. While his alias is still the same, 'Big Lug's alias on this is 'Cupid'. Eugene makes the connection and sends the data from Rapunzel's flash-drive. After 'Big Lug/Cupid' confirms that he has it, Eugene returns the flash-drive to Rapunzel, disables the WIFI, turns off his encryption program, clears that he has been on-line, and re-locks the settings. "I recommend keeping this off for the time being." Eugene says to Rapunzel, as he returns the computer.

Accepting the computer and putting it away into her satchel, "Do you mind if I stay with you tonight, we can find 'Big Lug' tomorrow, I think I know how to find him." Rapunzel asks. She looks at Eugene making the biggest, cutest eyes she could, a slight quivering of the lower lip. Eugene just dips his head knowing he cannot win. He goes to take one of the pillows off of the bed but is tackled from behind causing him to fall onto the bed face forward. He is then turned on to his back by Rapunzel.

Taking less than a second to connect the dots, "I am not going anywhere, am I?" Eugene asks. Rapunzel with one of the biggest grins he has ever seen just shakes her head as she gets comfortable on him, as if she was using him as a human mattress. She then lowers her head and places it under Eugene's chin. Almost instantly she falls asleep. While Eugene struggles to turn off the lights without waking Rapunzel, the frog now very red due to embarrassment and modesty turns out to be very usual as it shirkers about the wall to the light switches and turns off the lights. Eugene lets himself relax as he holds the most precious person in his life and soon too he goes to sleep.

Back in the bar as they leave, having called for a cab, Heather and Merida are perplexed, not at Rapunzel was coming back or not, they know she's going to spend the night with Eugene. They're not sure what to do concerning Eugene, do they report sighting him or not. And if they do what do they say, should they be honest that Rapunzel is aiding and embedding (pun intended) Eugene or that Rapunzel is a hostage with a case of Stockholm syndrome. Okay perplexed may not be the right word, torn is probably more accurate. If they do report it, it will most likely lead to a battle, but if they don't, they could be fired along with Rapunzel. Well as Sun Tzu once said 'The angry can be made happy, the dead can never be brought back to life.' Heather calls their mutual supervisor, the director of M.O.O.N., more of an FYI and to have Rapunzel's monitor-able activities cloaked, not all of her activities are monitored by Gothel. Merida calls the tip-line for reporting sightings of Eugene, if it were not for the fact that Gothel is monitoring her activities, well what Gothel can monitor, Heather would be calling the tip-line and Merida would be calling the director. Heather is done sooner and after Merida hangs up, "Rapunzel's going to hate us." Merida says. Heather nods in agreement, "Well, we did what we had to. It's a good thing we don't have to like it." Merida finishes, angry at herself.

The next morning Rapunzel and Eugene first head to the Equestrian campus of Corona Community College, mainly because it is the closest place where the two can go to look up or confirm who 'Big Lug/Cupid' is. Pascal and Maximus are not with them as they followed Rapunzel's order to go to her parent's place. It's not long until they find the most viable candidate, Professor Eros Short. Like Eugene his research deals with radiation, but it's more of post-exposure treatment and he's more of a teacher mentoring grad students as they work on their Master's and Doctorates. While they can't confirm this conclusion here, it's the best lead they got. As they leave the campus and walk through the wooded area near by heading towards town. In the background there is the starting of a powerful thunderstorm slowly creeping in. The two are holding hands as they walk. It's been awhile either has been this emotionally intimate with anyone. For Rapunzel she feels like one of those 15 year old freshmen that are the actual girlfriends of a senior. For Eugene, it's like he is a complete human being again, if only the rest of his life can be like this.

After a short while they let go of each other's hands, "Are you sure you want to do this on your own, I can at least walk you to the bus stop." Rapunzel offers as the two turn to face each other. Eugene can see how much Rapunzel wants the two to be together in her eyes. Eugene only sadly shakes his head indicating that Rapunzel can't come with him. Something seemed off and Rapunzel thought she saw someone trying to hide behind a tree. She looks back to Eugene and before she could say a word, Eugene already starts to run. Her silence told him everything.

Looking from a set of binoculars, "Damn it! Five more minutes and our snipers would have been in place." Gothel curses from inside an armored personal transporter that is functioning as her mobile command as it and a small battalion of men with a few Humvees make their way to one of the clearings. "Someone find out who jumped the gun." Gothel orders her command staff, she knows she's never going to get the answer, but she has to ask it.

As Eugene bolts, he heads back toward the campus heading towards one of the older barns; while no animal was staying there it has not been torn down. Cutting Eugene off from the barn, he is heading towards a squad with the Stabbington Brothers taking the lead, "He's heading 2-7-0." Pollox reports and Eugene changes directions towards the actual campus towards one of the active barns. For Eugene this is mostly to force Gothel's hand, 'US Army open fire on college students while pressuring scientist' that above the fold **[8]** would go over so well for Gothel. Also the same tactic worked in Brazil. As Eugene turns, a second squad joins the cornering this one now closer to Eugene.

As the brothers pass the other soldiers and would easily catch up to Eugene, "Stabbingtons, not now!" Gothel orders over their radio. The brothers stop in their tracks as they watch as Eugene again changes directions on the troops, this time to another decommissioned but currently not deconstructed barn.

Castor holds up his right hand in a ball and the soldiers stop upon arriving at the spot where the brothers stopped stop. "Look alive, gents. This could get interesting." Pollox orders the men. This could very interesting indeed.

Eugene continues to run, bobbing in and out of the more populated areas of the campus forcing the soldiers to have to change their rounds from lethal to nonlethal and back as they try to both keep pace and try to anticipate where he is going for several minutes.

While Gothel is still trying to get everyone to where they can set up an engagement line from inside the armored transporter, the driver stops as Rapunzel had managed to get in front of it. "Stop! Stop!" Rapunzel yells just before the transporter halts. "I know you're in there. General, please." Rapunzel pleads to Gothel. Inside Gothel tries to be unmoved, but Rapunzel is dear to her. "AUNT!" Gothel is moved, but not the way Rapunzel wants. Gothel opens the back of the transporter, steps out and walks to the side where she is joined by Rapunzel. "Aunt, please stop this." Rapunzel requests.

Gothel's heart had hardened long ago, "You're too close to see this clearly. Now get inside. This whole 'Eugunzel', 'Rapene', 'Rugene', or whatever you kids call it... this romance is just demented." Gothel says taking Rapunzel by her upper right arm and tries to bring her into the transporter.

Just before they reach the entrance one of the soldiers calls out, "There he is!" everyone turns and see Eugene has managed to get into the abandoned barn. Gothel lets go of Rapunzel as her focus is now on Eugene.

Over the radio, "Target is in the barn, we're about to lose visual." one of the soldiers reports.

Taking the radio, "Don't engage, I repeat don't engage. Lock him in." Gothel orders, and the soldiers do so. Inside the barn, Eugene realizes he's trapped unless he climbs up to the rafters and try one of the windows up there.

Outside of the barn another soldier radios, "He's locked in."

Gothel weighs her options for a second, "Put two canisters in there with him." Gothel orders and two soldiers fire a gas canisters a piece into one of the windows along the broad side. Eugene sees the canisters land and start to fill the barn. He can't get out through the window that was shattered, there's not enough time for him to crawl along the beams without being knocked out by the gas. He manages to get to the top of the ladder near the window he is going to try, but the gas is spreading faster than he figured.

Just barely seeing Eugene while he on the inside of the window at the front of the barn, Rapunzel runs toward it. Her logic is not making the calls, it's her emotional connection to him as her love, her husband, the father of her children. Witnessing Rapunzel running towards the barn, "Miller, Sols, get her back here!" Gothel orders. The two follow Rapunzel, Müller catches up sooner than Sols, but ends up getting hit by Rapunzel in his nose, causing him to fall over. Sols however is more successful as he is able to bring Rapunzel at least to the ground. From inside the barn Eugene sees this, his irises flash gray and then the cloud of the gas covers the window as it has now flooded the barn.

As the line of skirmish is finally set up and most of the campus is evacuated, Pollox and Castor watch more intensely than the others. After almost two minutes a load roar is heard from the barn and then from the upper level The Flynn breaks frees of the barn and jumps. He lands first on his feet and then going onto his knees and hands. After a couple of seconds, he is on his feet and again roars, he still is a highly robust version of Eugene, but now he is 8'6" and more proportional to his form as Eugene. Looking on from the transporter, "Now she see, I always know best." Gothel says just above what is considered under her breath. As The Flynn begins to walk towards Sols and Müller, "Alpha team, let him have it." Gothel orders. As this goes on Sols and Müller are able to get Rapunzel to the armored transport.

From the line of skirmish, soldiers open fire on The Flynn. This does nothing except annoy The Flynn, much like swarming flies, and prompts him to charge the line of soldiers. Knowing that what the soldiers have may not be enough, "Where are the .50 cals **[9]**? Get them here!" Gothel shouts into the radio. Just one of the Humvees mounted with a .50 caliber anti-tank machine gun drives towards The Flynn and fires open him. This does little to change The Flynn's course and he only pauses to stomp on the hood causing it to stop there. While the crew is not in the best of all conditions, but they will live. The Flynn continues his path to the skirmish line as another Humvee tries to intercept The Flynn, this too meet with a similar fate, but this time The Flynn had reached the battle line and after everyone just barely gets, The Flynn picks up the Humvee and uses it as a club on the other soldiers. Most having started to already fall back from this unwinnable fight.

Watching as The Flynn lays waste to her forces, granted all thus far will live, "Stabbingtons, now you're up!" Gothel orders over the radio, remaining almost apathetically stoic. The brothers grab and each taking a personal multiple grenade launcher and then start firing at The Flynn, alternating who fired as they approach The Flynn.

While each grenade explodes on The Flynn, he tears pieces off of the Humvee wreck to create two makeshift shields. All in all, while no physical harm befalls him, The Flynn is more and more irate. When the brothers are finally in melee range they chuck their larger weapons and take out their side-arms. Jumping back and forth evading the 'shields' The Flynn is now using makeshift axes, "My God, they're actually doing it." Gothel muses. Things may just turn around after all, but it's time to use the big guns. Taking the radio, "Move him to the Thunderdrums." Gothel orders the brothers. For the two brothers, the order came just in time, their out of ammo and while they have clear heads, The Flynn is not showing any signs of slowing down, if anything he's getting faster. The two bolt towards where the Humvees mounted with the Thunderdrum noise-cannons are setting up.

"Fire Now!" Pollox orders as he and Castor leap into the air, and one of the cannons fire. The sound waves force the brothers out of harm and then hit The Flynn died on. The force of the sound causes The Flynn to stop and then after the other cannon gets into place, it too fires on The Flynn.

As the sound cannons fire upon The Flynn, Sols and Müller hold on Rapunzel loosens and Rapunzel slips free. Grabbing Gothel's shoulders, "Please, please, please, no!" Rapunzel pleads. However, as she continues pleading "Please!"Sols and Müller grab her upper arms and pull her back from Gothel. "You're killing him!" Rapunzel shouts.

Having been forced to his knee, The Flynn is getting close to be beaten. But he hears something through the Thunderdrum sound waves, "Stop! Get off of me!" It's very distorted, but he knows Rapunzel needs help. The Flynn turns towards the direction of Rapunzel's voice, "Eugene! Eugene! Eugene!" he hears. Gritting his teeth, The Flynn struggles to get back on his feet. Everyone stares in silence as The Flynn first crawls to one of the cannons and as The Flynn is able to get to his feet. Then taking one of his makeshift shields he throws it at one of the Humvees with the Thunderdrum noise-cannon. The men bail out before the Humvee explodes as the shield cuts through it. The Flynn then turns to the other cannon and as he leaps into the air the crew bail out just before he lands on it destroying it.

Flabbergasted at what happened, "Where's the gunship?" Gothel asks, she had never placed all her eggs in one basket. Taking up two discarded firearms the Stabbingtons open fire on The Flynn and walk towards him. After a few seconds the two are again face to face with The Flynn and they stare each other down. Returning her attention to the scene Gothel takes the radio and orders, "Stabbingtons, pull back now. Pull back!" The brothers take the earpiece of their radios out of their right ears.

"Is that all you got?" Pollox asks, The Flynn growls and then with one forward kick sends Pollox into a tree. Castor looks to his brother then back to The Flynn, and forth. It's clear he's considering trying his luck or withdrawing. Castor elects the later and falls back. Unbeknownst to everyone else Heather and Merida watch the scene from afar.

Müller and Sols let go of Rapunzel and with everyone else does not wait for Gothel to actually give the order to fall back. "Fall back!" Gothel orders, not that she needed to say it. "Find cover!" she continues. As everyone else flees, Rapunzel walks where angels fear to tread, towards The Flynn. It's trance-like, but also like someone approaching a scared animal that they intend to help. The Flynn too approaches Rapunzel, not sure what to do not unlike a scared animal. While the two slowly approach each other, Gothel radios "Fire damn it!" to the approaching helicopter gunship. As soon as it's in range it starts to open fire. The Flynn however uses himself as shield for Rapunzel, while Rapunzel tries to make herself a small of a target as possible.

Only now that Gothel realizes where Rapunzel is, "DO NOT FIRE!" she screams, but it's too late the gunship has its target insight. As the rounds continue to fly, The Flynn takes the other of his makeshift shields and throws it at the helicopter. As it hits where the longer horizontal blades attach to the helicopter, The Flynn drops to his knees and curls himself around Rapunzel. The pilot is able to bail just in time to not be caught as the helicopter crashes and begins to roll towards the spot The Flynn is and the accompanying explosion and fire trail. "NO!" Gothel screams as she believes that her niece and god-daughter is killed in the explosion. Merida and Heather are shocked, there is no way a person could survive that. Just now the storm that had been creeping in begins.

Everyone stares as the smoke starts to clear and the fire starts to die down, The Flynn emerges from the wreckage. Soon the unconscious body of Rapunzel is seen being tenderly held in his arms. For a few seconds Gothel and The Flynn stare right into each other's eyes. Gothel is taken aback, can nothing take The Flynn down? For The Flynn all he feels is ire, wrath, hatred and anger at Gothel, no matter if he was Eugene Fitzherbert, Flynn Rider or The Flynn, if Gothel does die, there would be no love lost. The Flynn growls and starts to head away into the woods.

Two hours later, after cleaning up the wreckage at the battle site, just outside of the hotel Merida and Heather are staying at, "You did the right thing calling it in." Gothel says to Merida whom ireful-ly looks into the falling rain. The ire is mostly at herself, but Gothel does deserve a fair amount. Heather is also there sitting on one the benches there. "I need to know where they're going." Gothel tries to get out of the two. Seeing that the two cannot be appealed for tracking Eugene, but maybe for helping Rapunzel. "She'll be in incredible danger as long as she's with him." Gothel says, she's not wrong, but she may not be correct in whom would be the cause of the danger.

Merida not turning to look at Gothel, "From whom? He protected her with his own self. You almost had your cronies kill her." Merida answers. Now more and more of the ire she feels is directed to Gothel.

Seeing this is not an easy sell, "I give you my word, her safety is my main concern at this point."

Chuckling to herself, "You know part of what I do requires me to make it a point of professional pride to know when someone is lying to me, especially when my back is turned." Merida pauses, "And you are."

Seeing that this requires a little more diplomacy, "We don't know where he's going. She may have no choice to help him, you've seen what he can do. He can break her like a twig." Heather chimes in.

Gothel knows that not entirely true, but any competent defense attorney will get Rapunzel off with that fact. Gothel starts to head away, "I use to wonder why she never talked about you. Now it's painfully obvious why." Merida shouts as Gothel heads to her vehicle.

Musing to herself in annoyance, "Where does she meet these people?" Gothel asks as she enters the vehicle.

"Sir, in the report, what do you want to say about the Thunderdrums?" Müller asks the general.

"They performed as Mr. Alvin Anderson described. In hindsight, we should have ordered three of the Thorando model. Now let's go HQ." Gothel orders and the vehicle drives away.

The storm is getting stronger and stronger as The Flynn carries Rapunzel, until he finds a cave that can used as a shelter, at least for a while. Gently he lays Rapunzel down. Just then a bolt of lightning cracks the sky causing Rapunzel to wake up. She screams not realizing that the being with her is Eugene. This startles The Flynn causing him to hit his head. After a few seconds, "Eugene?" Rapunzel asks. The Flynn slowly reproaches the Rapunzel cautious like an unsure animal. Then another bolt of lightning cracks the sky. The Flynn hollers at the sky.

Seeing how Eugene as The Flynn is hollering at the lighting that cracks the sky like a scared animal electing to fight, " _Flower gleam and glow, Let your powers shine, make the clock reverse, Bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt. Change the fates' design. Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine. What once was mine_." Rapunzel sings to The Flynn. As she sings, The Flynn starts to calm down and turns to face her. As she finishes the song, The Flynn had become Eugene again he stumbles forward and falls, his head landing on her chest. Rapunzel lowers herself and Eugene to the ground. She then leaves him to go see if there is a place they can crash the night. She finds a cheap motel not far from where 'The Flynn' stopped running.

When Eugene comes too he's on a motel bed, but his sleep was not restful as his mind flashed through the all the skirmishes he had been in with against the soldiers Gothel sent after him. There's no cohesiveness or logic to the order of what he saw. He's about to panic when he feels a hand on his bare chest, "It's okay, It's okay, it's okay." Eugene's mind registers the voice before his eyes can focus on the figure on the bed with him.

"Rapunzel? Where are we?" Eugene asks and then takes several deep breaths, mostly to calm himself from the nightmares-memories that still haunt him.

"We're in a motel out of town on the other side of the Equestrian campus. I got us this room while you were still out." Rapunzel answers as she helps Eugene out of bed. "I got a bath ready for you. I know you prefer showers, but I think the last thing your psyche need is to have water raining down on you like a machine gun." Rapunzel's statement is not untrue, he doesn't need to re-experience what happened in his waking hours. It's now that he realizes that the only thing he has on is pants. "I already got you some new cloths, well shirt and pants you're going to have to go commando for a while." Rapunzel informs with a weak, 'I am sorry' smile.

Eugene just chuckles, "Well it's nothing you haven't seen before." as he heads to the bathroom and before he shuts the door, Rapunzel walks in and shuts it herself.

"You'll need someone to wash your back." Rapunzel says, her face showing no signs of trying to be coy or embarrassment, it's as if all that Rapunzel was going to was wash his back, maybe wash his hair as well but nothing else. After washing Eugene's hair and back Rapunzel goes back into the actual bedroom part of the room.

After finishing his bath and drying off, Eugene walks out of the bathroom wearing the pants Rapunzel got him. "Hey, Blondie, where's the..." Eugene starts, but sees Rapunzel laying on the bed wearing the shirt, it's way too big for her as a shirt but a short skirt dress it's perfect, length wise. "Never mind." Eugene says as he sets down in the chair in the room.

"Say Eugene, I know you looked into possible side effects of palladium usage while you were mentoring me on my doctorate. Let's say someone uses it to power an electromagnet meant to stop electro-magnetic shrapnel from reaching their heart. What would likely happen to said person?" Rapunzel asks, while she's not currently assigned to shadow Hiccup, she knows she's the most qualified of M.O.O.N.'s agents for it and it's only a matter of time before M.O.O.N. starts looking into Hiccup's health.

Surprised at the question Eugene almost falls out of the chair, after regaining himself, "Palladium in the chest, wow that is daring. Give me a minute..." after a few seconds of thought Eugene continues, "Okay at about month 6 or 7 the blood vessels of neck would become more apparent, the person would have sudden self-destructive and suicidal tendencies, there would be a shift in personality to a more 'Devil may care' attitude mostly because the brain is shutting down due to the toxic blood starting with the parts that help make those 'higher' order decisions. At either month 9 or 10 depending on how much palladium has been used, the damage is irreversible even if there is a successful de-tox and at that point death is pretty much certain to accrue at month 12 but the person will definitely be six feet under at month 14. Medically speaking the person should get a specialized surgery as soon as possible as long as it's less than 8 months, at that point it's either a) let the palladium kill you, b) pull out the electromagnets and wait for the shrapnel to reach the heart or c) commit suicide by any other means."

After taking in all that Eugene said, "Oh, so there's no treatment, no alternative" Rapunzel asks as she moves over on the bed and pats it indicating that Eugene should come to bed.

After thinking for a second, "Well lithium-oxide might be able to take the sting off it, much like how metal armor, be it mail **[10]** or plate, takes the sting off of a weapon's initial strike, but it really doesn't do much in the way of cure. It would be more of a suppressant, but I don't know of any viable alternatives to palladium." Eugene answers. As he sets down to join Rapunzel on the bed. Eugene feels like there is something Rapunzel is not telling him. Well, while telling each other the entirety of their respective pasts was not a vow they made but they each know a lot about each other, well save for how Eugene became 'poor orphan Eugene Fitzherbert'.

Seeing the confusion on Eugene's face of why she was asking her questions, "Eugene, I am not just a doctor." Rapunzel answers Eugene's unasked question. Before he could ask follow-up question Rapunzel continues, "I am an agent of the Ministry of Official and Obscene Nature," she takes out the badge and credentials from a secret compartment of her satchel. Seeing the 'that's the stupidest name I have ever heard and that's including what 'that me' calls itself' look on Eugene's face Rapunzel continues, "I know it's a terrible name, I like to call it by its acronym; M.O.O.N.. My full title is 'Supervisory Special Agent Dr. Rapunzel Von Corona. My specialty: Shadow. My code name..." Rapunzel is interrupted there.

"Let me guess, Sun Flower..." Eugene says having a good idea where Rapunzel was going. Seeing Rapunzel face pretty much say 'how did you figure it out?', "You have a golden sun on a purple field tattooed on your back, like the red hourglass thing on the abdomen of a female black widow spider that explains the 'Sun' part. As for the 'Flower' part' there is that song you sang that got me to turn back to... me. Anyway go on." Eugene finishes his explanation, and he was dead on with why M.O.O.N. refers to her by that name.

Rapunzel takes as deep breath, she's not ready to tell Eugene this, but she knows she can't avoid it any longer, "I was recruited just after high school. During my time in college, I heard of your research into radiation-resistance and such, and there was your lecture on radiation sickness and treatment, actual and theoretical. I wanted to help, I was about to apply to the position as your assistant when I got the assignment to..." Rapunzel pauses, almost depressed, she feels like she committed a heinous sin and she's bearing out her souls. She has never truly felt this vulnerable, at least in the confessional the priest does not often look her straight in the eye **[11]**.

"Keep track of the research and assess my motives." Of the two, Eugene is the more surprised that he's so calm and understanding. "So M.O.O.N., hacked the HR of the lab and got you the job before I could interview the 'top 8' candidates." Eugene concludes, he's actually spot on. "For what it's worth, that day during your second week when I was not in the lab, I was reading everything that the applicants sent me and after I read what you sent, I called HR and asked 'Can I have ten 'Rapunzel Von Corona's?'" Eugene smiles as he brushes Rapunzel's brunette hair. Rapunzel smiles as Eugene brushes her hair with his hands, it's how he always tells her that it's not her fault, that it's not her sin, that she is forgiven. "So you're a moon-shadow..." Eugene pauses and after thinking for a few seconds, "and I thought your big secret was that your hair when it was long and blonde would glow when you sing a certain song and can cast some sort-of healing spell." Eugene chuckles at the thought, hair glowing what an idea.

Rapunzel laughs a little too. Then she gets serious, "No, it's my tears that can heal people. But that's not the last secret."

Author's Notes:

And another cliffhanger...

Yes Eugene is the father of Rapunzel's twins, and in case you are wondering Rapunzel is in fact Catholic

 **[1]** Yes Eugene is bad with name, but he remembers some of things Rapunzel tells him...

 **[2]** We all know Pascal is a chameleon, but like in the movie 'Tangled' Eugene often calls Pascal a frog

 **[3]** I know it's actually raining, but you can't argue with the imagery of the song

 **[4]** I get why 'I see the light' is done the way it is in the movie, but I think Eugene should have gone through a full of the refrain by himself and then the two do the whole refrain together... but that's a personal preference

 **[5]** This is a brief, very brief, description of how the understanding of Valhalla that has survived to the present, and personally I would say Gobber would be one of those einherjar that are able to come back to the realm of the living... not saying that Gobber will come back, that ball is in RNC's and SSM's courts

 **[6]** akevitt is an alcoholic beverage...specificity a distilled liquor that is from Norway

 **[7]** Very little is actually know of the Celts that is Pre-Roman invasion of not only of Gaul (France) but of what is now England that has survived, the problem with the earliest written texts we have is that it was written by Julius Caesar and we have to take everything he wrote with a grain... okay maybe a cup or two of salt because you have to remember what Caesar wrote is as much if not more propaganda as is it is factual, but the most fair to the Celts I can find is that they believed that death was like the soul going to sleep... with a bit of reincarnation and such incorporated, which in a way does enables the whole 'Once-and-Future King' part of the Arthurian legends; Arthur's soul is sleeping until it's time for his soul's next body... any actual expert in the Celtic beliefs please don't flame but constructive criticism is welcomed

 **[8]** Above the fold refers to the article on the front page of a newspaper that is literally above the fold and is thus the first thing people read... it's a newspaper thing

 **[9]** This is short of .50 Caliber anti-tank, one of the highest powerful types of guns manufactured today, but here is the thing not even a depleted uranium round of the most power tank shell can hurt The Flynn, tick him off to no end, but not hurt, yep Gothel has no idea what she's up against

 **[10]** There is no such thing as chain mail, the correct term for that form of armor is mail

 **[11]** Often in a Catholic confessional there is a veil of sorts that hides the face of priest from the confessor and the confessor's face from the priest 


	5. A Cure

_HiccupHaddockIII: Yes it is cute, I was trying for romantic..._

 _SharKohen: I don't think you're overdoing it_

 _The Viking Stranger: Glad be are cool. Yes you nailed it, I wasn't going to have it any other way, but Eugene may still be in the dark about the paternity of the twins for a while. Actually M.O.O.N. only knows about Hiccup using the element because it's the only element Hiccup can use as he is using it... at this point, and really only Eugene knows the side-effects of the element and how Hiccup is using it, he never got the chance to publish his findings. This all is mostly in because neither RNC, SSM nor I are pleased with how SHIELD just knew to send in Black Widow in Iron Man 2. Also I am really trying to establish that these stories, Iron Fury and Tangled Flynn are part of the some story line unlike the appearance of Tony Stark at the end of The Incredible Hulk. Also this is Hiccup we're talking about he'll make a solution..._

Ch. 5 The Cure

Rapunzel laughs a little too. Then she gets serious, "No, it's my tears that can heal people. But that's not the last secret."

"What other secret can you have?" Eugene asks as he gets serious again and surprised at the prospect of Rapunzel having anymore secrets.

After taking a deep breath, "I am a mother... twins... a boy and a girl... legally speaking I am actually their big sister, but they know I am their mother, and my parents are their grandparents." Rapunzel informs Eugene as they remain lying down on the bed.

Eugene is actually happy for Rapunzel, "Congratulations Blondie. Does the father..." he starts to asks, _There's no way they can be mine,_ he thinks. He's been gone for two years.

"I never got the chance to tell him..." Rapunzel stops there, while she wants to tell Eugene everything she's not sure that she can. How do you tell someone who's been out of your life and likely would remain that way that they are the other parent to your children.

Eugene misreads the pause, "I am so sorry. You know while I want us to be... us again, I would happily settle with you having found someone and … well you get the idea." He says assuming that Rapunzel was for a short time happy with someone else. As she's about to speaks, he interrupts her, "I don't need to know who the father is, the only thing that matters is that they are yours."

Rapunzel sighs and just buries her face into Eugene's chest and cries to sleep. Eugene thinks it's because of how understanding he is, but the truth is that it hurts because he doesn't know that he's a father.

After leaving the hotel that Merida and Heather are staying at, Gothel arrives at the hospital Pollox Stabbington and the other causalities are in. Right now she walks with the doctor who's focus is Pollox Stabbington. "Will he ever walk again?" Gothel asks getting to the point.

Electing to not send any mixed messages, "Most of his bones look like crushed gravel right now." They arrive at where Pollox is, he is in a hospital bed with wires providing support for his digits and casts on his limbs with a neck brace. "I will say this for him. He's got a heart is like a machine. You just don't find anything like that," he doctor admiringly said about Pollox. Gothel looks over the battered body of Pollox Stabbington, his brother in a chair next to him. Maybe the super soldier thing was scrapped because it died in the 1940's. Gothel turns and walks away and unnoticed by everyone, Pollox squeezes his right hand and his right eye opens.

After arriving in the waiting room Gothel watches in one of the TVs. On it is a report of what happened earlier today. "Rumors continue to swirl about a violent clash between the US Military and an unknown large humanoid on the Equestrian campus of Corona Community College just outside of Corona, PA proper, earlier today," the reporter starts. "Multiple students witnessed the battle and have flooding the social media, local and state news with what they saw and now its national news. A recent comment from a Gretel Fetcher, a former member of Corona's local biker gang the Snuggling Ducklings, identified the large humanoid as 'The Flynn' and that 'The Flynn' is actually Dr. Eugene Fitzherbert, a former leading researcher in radiation resistance who vanished two years ago after an experiment went wrong." The reporter continues in the background as Gothel gets up and leaves. She doesn't need to hear any more of the report.

Early the next morning, Eugene is shaving his beard and mustache over the sink in the bathroom, but he leaves a goatee. Now he has to do something with his hair. Rapunzel walks in, "I can cut that for you. I've done it before," she says as she leans against his back with only the shirt and pants she bought for Eugene between their flesh.

"You know you're the only one to ever get it just right," Eugene says jokingly. Truth be told Rapunzel knows that almost everyone else could do it better than her, but he never complained about her doing it or sort to have it corrected. He turns and sits on the tub as Rapunzel tries her head at cutting his hair. Eugene steps into the tub.

After about ten minutes Rapunzel was done and actually she was spot on with Eugene's preferred look. "I hope I did it right." Rapunzel says looking over her work.

"It's perfect," Eugene says as he gets out of the tub. As Rapunzel starts to leave, "Hey, I am sorry for doing you wrong, abandoning you, and well... everything. None of what you feel you've done against me is your fault, it's all mine." Eugene speaks as he grabs Rapunzel's right hand with his own.

"Do me right then," Rapunzel says as she turns to look Eugene straight in the eye.

Taken a back, "When I said 'I done you wrong', what I meant..." Eugene starts not sure if Rapunzel is using a euphemism.

"I know what you meant and no I don't mean you doing right by me." Rapunzel says knowing what Eugene was thinking as it was written on his face. He opens his mouth a couple of times and shuts it. He has nothing to say, then he remembers but before he can say anything. "Please, just love me as you loved me on our wedding night. Just look into my eyes, forget your heart rate, forget Gothel, forget everything and just focus on this," Rapunzel says as she moves Eugene's right hand and places it over her heart. "And everything will be okay." Eugene gives a sighs and follows Rapunzel back into the bedroom. Eugene is thankful that he doesn't have one of those infernal heart monitors; they can be quite the mood killer.

Meanwhile, Gothel waits in her temporary HQ inside the hospital wing where the casualties were taken. It has not been an easy afternoon and night. She knows she's not Corona's favorite person but she does not want to deal with the press and the phone calls from her superiors were far from helpful. Müller enters, "Sir, it's Stabbington, P." Müller says and starts to lead Gothel back to Pollox' room.

"How is Castor taking the news, has he broken his silence?" Gothel asks as they about to enter the room.

"You can ask, but I doubt you'll get an answer." Müller informs and points to Pollox as the doctor is taking everything off him. He's in prime health.

Gothel approaches slowly with a smile creeping on her face, "It's good to see you back on your feet soldier." Gothel says looking Pollox over. "How do you feel?" she asks.

"Pissed off and ready..." Pollox starts but Castor grabs his upper arm to get his attention. The two turns to Castor as he signs in ASL "2 out of 3". "To call it. I have never felt something so powerful. Only a force of nature can is greater than that thing. We're still in, but you'll have to send someone with twice what you gave each of us if Eugene goes gray again."

Back at the motel as Eugene and Rapunzel prepare for checking out, "So M.O.O.N. is cloaking all your activities, credit card, debit card, cellphone?" Eugene asks.

"Yeah, officially this now a M.O.O.N. mission and Gothel doesn't have the authority to override it. Also we're first and foremost an intelligence agency; you'd be surprised how much of that involves counterintelligence." Rapunzel answers as they look over all Rapunzel's thing.

"Well just to be safe, keep all your electronics off and keep your cards and ID in your satchel. The only thing we can use is cash." Eugene says expressing his opinion.

"I am keeping my M.O.O.N. phone on, Gothel can't track it." Rapunzel counters, Eugene accepts that.

Something was nagging at Eugene as they are finally prepared to leave, "Say is there a chance your friends called in seeing me?" he asks.

"If Merida didn't, then all three of us could have been fired, Heather was the one who called to initiating the cloaking of my activities. I am not thrilled about it either, but they did what they had to do. Now are we going to find Professor Short or wait for Gothel to figure out where we going?" Eugene reluctantly accepts as the two head out.

Once outside, "So how are we going to get to Short?" Eugene asks but watches as Rapunzel goes over to the motel owner and points to a truck that has a for sale sign in its window and after what he had to admit was a level of charm that he never thought possible, she walks back to him with the keys to the truck. She gives him a big toothy closed eye smile like a little kid that did a really good job and wanted a pat on the head. "Wow." Eugene says as they walk to the truck and takes the keys, "You're barefoot, it's better to drive with shoes," he comments. He gets into the driver seat, with Rapunzel taking the front passenger's. Upon seeing the pout on her face, "You get to choose the station." He says.

"YAY!" Rapunzel shouts not unlike an extremely happy ten year-old girl.

After about half an hour of listening to music, Rapunzel turns the radio off, "What's it is like, when you transform?" Rapunzel asks.

Eugene talks a breath and asks, "Have you ever volunteered for induced hallucination experiments?" Rapunzel shakes her head no. "Ever tried any mental state altering drugs?" He asks. Rapunzel shakes her head no again. "Ever seen a movie about the 1960's with an acid trip scene?" She nods yes to that. "Well it's like a thousand times more intense than what the character is experiencing. It's like someone soaked my brain in a bathtub full of the most concentrated form of acid possible mixed all the mind-altering drugs in their most concentrated forms." He informs.

"Do you remember any of it?" Rapunzel asks as they continue along the back roads heading towards town.

"Mostly just fragmented images. Nothing in any order or coherence. There's so much noise and not just auditory but visual, olfactory, touch, heck even the senses that are non-traditional to humans. There's so much I can't make anything out of it." Eugene answers as he drives on.

"But you're still in there, I mean when we were in the cave it was as if you still were there. Just scared like a starving, lost and injured animal, like a dog, cat or chameleon. It's like you're so mentally overcharged and overwhelmed you can't process anything beyond an instinctive level." Rapunzel points out. "Maybe you can..."

Eugene stops her there, "I don't want to control it. I want to be rid of it." he exclaims to her and the two go silent and after a couple of minutes turns the radio back on.

About the same time as Rapunzel and Eugene check out of the motel, Gothel enters another hospital room, this one was set up to be like the room where the brothers got their injections. "Sir, are you certain about this?" the doctor asks as Gothel starts to take off her uniform shirt.

"I am, Gentlemen." Gothel says as her shirts come off.

After another half hour they park in a public parking garage near the actual edge of town. They go over to one of those visitor maps and look for Short's most frequented place outside of the Corona Community College harbor-side campus. "Let's see the closest is here, the Gift Flower club. Man, I hate it when people use innocent names for Strip joints," Eugene says as he looks over the map.

"You and me both, but after his car accident last year he really cannot go anywhere else. But it's all the way near the docks. So Subway?" Rapunzel asks as she looks over the map and weighs how to get there.

"An underground tube with hundreds of people that are fairly irritable at this hour and me?" Eugene asks pointing out the shortcomings of that plan.

"Right, let's hail a cab then." Rapunzel says looking at the other option.

Twenty minutes later Rapunzel and Eugene exit a cab, actually a long walk from their destination. Eugene holding onto Rapunzel, "YOU CALL THAT DRIVING! YOU RECKLESS HALF-WIT! YOU BETTER PRAY A DECADE OF THE ROSARY IN GRATITUDE THAT I DON'T HAVE MY FRYING PAN!" Rapunzel shouts at the driver.

"Come on babe, don't you like some thrill?" the driver asks, clearly not fazed by his reckless driving or by Rapunzel's wrath. Eugene loosens his grip and Rapunzel starts towards the cab. Seeing the ire in her eyes the driver books it, his fare uncollected.

Rapunzel growls and turns to Eugene, "Don't you even!" She hisses in wrath, "We are walking." she orders as she sees the look in his face as if he's about to suggest some calming techniques. He stops and they walk the rest of the way to their destination. He remains quiet, he's never seen Rapunzel so angry... and he thought he's scary when he's angry.

Stumbling out of the Gift Flower club, " _I gotta dream...I got some dreams,_ " an old short man sings. He is Professor Eros Short a.k.a Big Lug/Cupid. Upon seeing Rapunzel not far from the entrance. "I... ohhh, somebody get me a glass. Because I found myself a tall drink of water." He says as leans onto the build's exterior wall.

"Professor Sh.."

"You can just call me Eros, dear, because you are one beautiful psyche..." The professor clearly had one too many as he is hitting on Rapunzel. Eugene walks out of where he was hiding and takes of the sunglasses and baseball cap, it has the logo for the Corona Sun's, the local minor league team, on it.

"Big-Lug', I assume." Eugene says.

"You must be Flynn Rider, your nose looks different than I expected." Short says as he stares at Eugene for a short while.

A short while later in Professor Short's home-lab, the three sit in three of the chairs in his apartment "I must admit, I've wondered if you really exist. And if you did, what would you look like. A person with so much raw power residing in him," Short starts as he is looking over Eugene. "Honestly not much could have surprised me more than this... well playboy right in front of me." He continues. Eugene is not thrilled with being called that. Rapunzel remains silent. "But look. We're not strolling into the park for a picnic, here. Even if everything goes perfectly, if we induce an episode, if we get the dosage spot on, the question remains will it be a permanent thing or will it only negate that specific flare-up?" Short asks. He doesn't expect answer this is more of briefing on the effects of the procedure. To demonstrate he gestures that he's flipping a coin and looking to see which in landed on. "I don't know." He pauses, "But here is the main thing, if we overshoot the dosage by even the smallest possible amount, with the sheer concentrations of the substances, the toxicity levels..."

Rapunzel cuts in, "You mean it could kill him?" having a good idea where Short is going.

"Yes, I have to say that it could. There just are things that no-matter what the human body is not immune to," Short points out answering Rapunzel's question.

Recalling that there is another way this could go wrong, "Let's not forget, there's another side to this coin. If we under-dose me, if we induce me and it fails, this will not only be dangerous for almost everyone in the city, but I in that form will develop a resistance to whatever you used. So if we could try again, you would end up having to kill me." Eugene points out.

Short chuckles, "When you have been researching as long as I have, you learn how to balance curiosity and caution, when to let go of curiosity and when to chuck caution to the wind. Concerning the dosage amount of the antidote, this is one of the times that you chuck caution to the wind. So, are we going to do this?" Short asks.

About that time Gothel exits the hospital room when she had the injection, doubled the dose of what each of the Stabbington brothers had. She's in uniform, but this her combat one. Sols runs up to her, "Sir we found out who 'Big-Lug' is, it's Professor Eros Short. Like Rider he has been researching radiation, but more into treatment. He has a home-lab in the harbor-side of town. I briefed the Stabbingtons and everyone else, we're ready to move out." he reports. "Sir, are you alright?" Sol's asks.

"I feel perfectly fine. Let's head out." Gothel orders and Sols leads the way to the departure point. " _The Monster's Loose."_ She sings softly and evilly to herself as her irises flash a bright green, this is unnoticed by everyone else.

Back in Short's home-lab, the professor takes a plastic covering off a restraining table and starts preparing the machinery, there are several monitors for computers and one is a dialysis machine, there he puts the antidote that will be used. Eugene and Rapunzel watches as Short is surprisingly fast for an old man. After everything that could be set up before Eugene is restrained, "Okay, on the table," Short orders. Eugene takes off his shirt and lies down on the table. As Rapunzel and Short straps and secures him to it, "These will protect you from yourself if you have a strong reaction," Short says. After Eugene is restrained Short and Rapunzel put tubing into Eugene for the dialysis machine.

"Wait until after it's over and then tell me about strong reactions." Eugene chides as Short goes back to the machinery and finishes turning them on.

As one of the machines acts up, "Oh come on! I hate working with grad students." Short says and hits the machine and it starts working properly. As he goes among the other machines, Eugene and Rapunzel look at each other, both are a little unsure about this. As Short almost finishes, "This will most likely be a novel sensation." and as the machinery starts, "We have left off."

Eugene feels as his blood leaves his body into the dialysis machine and it return. Eugene is wishing he was unconscious, dialysis sucks. "The dialysis machine will mix the antidote with your blood." Short says and noting how Eugene is faring, "Now the antidote will only take hold after we've achieved a full mix." Short informs as he returns back to the machinery.

Focusing more on Eugene, " _Flower gleam and glow, Let your powers shine, make the clock reverse, Bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt. Change the fates design. Save what has been lost. Bring back what once was mine. What once was mine."_ Rapunzel sings to Eugene and he seems to relax as if he's drifting into a restful sleep.

Before they know it, it's time to induce an episode. Short gives Eugene a bite guard and prepares to shock him. Taking two rods like those used for electroshock therapy, "Are we ready to pop?" he asks. Eugene nods slightly reluctant. "I'd let go of his hand," Short says noticing Rapunzel was holding Eugene's right hand with her own. Rapunzel lets go.

Short actives the prods and zap Eugene right at his temples. Eugene rocks in pain from the electricity and then his eyes flash gray. He starts to transform. His skin starting to become gray, his limbs and torso slowly expand. He shouts in pain as Short and Rapunzel looks on in, Short in awe as if he is witnessing the arrival of a god, Rapunzel in silent pain as she knows that Eugene is in indescribable pain. Short is about to start the treatment, "Wait, he's not done." Rapunzel says and Short stops. Eugene continues to grow and after thirty seconds since he was shocked he is The Flynn. "Now! Now! Now!" Rapunzel says to short as The Flynn breaks the restraint on his right hand. Short is slow as The Flynn breaks the restraint along his waist and the legs.

"Eugene! Eugene, it's me. Just look at me." Rapunzel says calming as she jumps on to The Flynn and places her hands on to his chest. "The antidote now. Short!" Rapunzel orders the old man. Turning back to The Flynn. "Eugene, look at me, look into my eyes. Please." Rapunzel says calmly and The Flynn obeys he's starting to calm. Rapunzel would prefer to sing her song, but she knows she must not.

One of the machines acts up, "Oh you've got to be kidding me!" Short rants. He kicks a couple of machines and finally the dialysis machine starts rushing the blood mixed with the antidote into The Flynn's blood vessel at his wrists and legs. The Flynn has a sudden jolt and he begins to shrink, to become Eugene again. Eugene gasps as he's again himself. It had been between 2 minutes and 2 minutes 15 seconds, since he was zapped.

As he breaths heavily, "Eugene, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay." Rapunzel says as she looks into his eyes and places her hands around his face re-reassuringly. "You did it." She says and kisses him.

Looking at the monitors and seeing the results, "He's fine. This is fantastic!" Short reports in awe.

"Hey Blondie, can we never do that again?" Eugene asks, Rapunzel only gives a soft laugh and another kiss.

After helping Eugene up and get dressed, the three are back in the area Short set-up for sitting, "That was the most extraordinary thing I have ever seen in my entire life and I use to go to Vegas to watch the above ground nuclear bomb testings!" Short shouts excitedly.

"Stop right there. We need to calm down and talk about what happened," Rapunzel commands. She's not trying to rain on the old man's parade but now is not the time for celebrations.

Knowing Rapunzel's right but still excited, "Absolutely. The gamma pulse came from the amygdala. I think that what you injected into yourself two years ago allows the cells to absorb the energy temporarily, and then it abates. That's why you didn't die of radiation sickness then!" Short concludes. "Now, we may have neutralized the cells permanently, or maybe we just suppressed that event. I am inclined to think the latter, but it's almost impossible to know unless we attempt to induce another episode. Then again none of my test subjects survived. That could because they didn't get the..." he continues until Eugene cuts him off there.

"Test subjects? Short, I thought we agreed that you would only test it on my blood?" Eugene points out.

Short shifts his shoulders, "Come with me." And he leads the two into another part of the lab.

Outside Gothel arrives at the perimeter being set up, Sols right behind her. "What's the activity level?" Sols asks as they both going a mobile command center.

"Snipers are covering Alpha sector." A soldier at the monitors reports.

Outside on one of the nearby buildings a sniper team is readying to take the shot. The have set up a way to hear what is being said inside and relayed over the radio, "I started with mice, moved up to rats, but they just couldn't take it. So I had to go bigger." Short is heard over the system.

Back inside his home, "Now I don't know which is more toxic, the gamma radiation or your blood, they die too soon to know." Short continues as they enter the room where Short has stored a lot of blood in bags.

"What do you mean?" Eugene asks. "Is this..." he points to one of the samples randomly.

"Yep, it's all you. You didn't send me a lot to work with. I had to concentrate it and make multiple batches of synthetic replicas with of course varying concentrations and such. Hopefully with a little more trial and error, there's no end to what can be done!" Short answers excited as Eugene looks in horror at all the synthetic blood. "This is practically Olympian. This has almost limitless applications. We can unlock millions of cures and rid the human species of thousands of diseases." Short continues. Rapunzel too starts to feel fear, terror.

Outside at the entrance of the building Gothel and her advance team preps to storm the room as they enter.

Looking everything over, "We got to destroy it. All of it." Eugene says. "Tonight we have to incinerated all it. Is this the whole supply?" Eugene asks Short.

"I have installed a system that will release a solution with a pOH of 1 then followed by a solution with a pH of 1 into all the samples that will trigger in about thirty seconds if I don't input the halt command soon. But we can get the Nobel for this." Short counters not entirely following.

Eugene shakes his head, "Then don't input it. You don't understand the power of this thing. It is too dangerous. It cannot be controlled." he orders.

Back in the command center, "At your discretion." Sols informs the sniper. Over the radio Short is heard again, "But the three of us! This is Promethean fire!" Eugene voice is heard next, "It's not..." "No shot" the sniper reports.

Back inside the building Gothel and her team begin making their way up at speed.

In the command center, "Sir, why are you going in, your niece is in there, Sir?" Sols asks. Gothel doesn't answer as she starts jumping up and climbing, she's never felt so alive in her life.

Back in the lab, "But we have the antidote." Short counters, he looks at his watch, he's almost out of time to save the samples.

"They don't want an antidote! They want to make it a weapon!" Eugene informs. For once would someone actually stop and listen to him. "And if we let it go, not only will we never get it back, there will be nothing left! I know the damage I can do by myself, can you image a thousand like me?!" Outside more of the soldiers are moving in and the sniper is waiting for his shot. "You don't know how powerful this thing is!" Eugene shouts.

Trying to wrap this up before his fail-safe programs triggers, "I hate the government just as much as about anyone, but you are being paranoid, don't you think?" Short asks. Eugene slams the table in fury. It's like no-one ever learned from 'The Wolf-man'.

As he unwittingly enters the sniper's target scope, "It's not paranoia when you know someone is out to get..." Eugene doesn't finish as he's hit with a tranquilizing round in the shoulder. Short gasps as the sight as Eugene tries to remain standing as he takes the tranquilizer out. It's too late to stop the effects, as he collapses to his knees. Just then the timer on Short's watch goes off, his samples will be destroyed in a matter of seconds and there is no way to save any.

"Eugene!" Rapunzel calls as she rushes to his side.

Eugene looks past her and sees of all people Gothel speed walk into the room. With the last of his strengths he shoves Rapunzel to the side where she can be comparatively safe. Gothel closes the distance and grabs Eugene's face. "Where is it? Show me it!" Gothel orders and slaps Eugene, nothing. She smacks Eugene's head, nothing. As she forces his left eye to stay open, "Show him to me!" she orders. But all she sees are the dilating pupils that result from the tranquilizer he was shot with. As a few of the soldiers finally check-up, "General!" one of them shouts. In anger she let's go of Eugene to bash him in the face with her elbow knocking him out.

A short while later, as four soldiers take a slightly more awake Eugene out on a stretcher, Rapunzel walks behind them but steps to the side to try to recover from this, at least enough to function soon. Gothel arrives last and after Eugene is put and secured to a gurney she walks up to him. "If you took it from me, I'm gonna put you in a hole for the rest of your life." She whispers to Eugene. Eugene remained looking forward and unaffected by Gothel's threat, save for a slight chuckle as if Eugene was saying, 'if you were capable of doing that, you would have two years ago.' As Eugene is loaded, Rapunzel walks towards him but is intersected by Gothel. "Rapunzel..." Gothel says trying to be motherly.

"I can never forgive you for what you've done to him." Rapunzel says as she breaks free of Gothel's hold on her arm.

"Oh Flower, he's a fugitive..." Gothel starts but she's not allowed to finish.

As if she was Absolute Zero **[1]** "And who made him one? You did trying to cover-up you failures and protect your career. Don't ever speak to me like we're family again." Rapunzel retorts, calling Gothel out for what she is.

Trying to salvage this sinking ship, "It's because you're my niece and goddaughter, you're not in handcuffs too, Stabbingtons get them out of here." Gothel replies to Rapunzel. Rapunzel just walks into the personal transporter. Once this is all over, Gothel will forever be out of her life. Watching her leave, "You want me to be the bad guy? Fine. Now I'm the bad guy." Gothel whispers as turns to face the building.

Author's Notes:

Okay just so that we are clear, Rapunzel and Eugene are still married, Rapunzel never filed for a divorce or petitioned for an annulment, this story is T so I cannot really have any more details then what I have... Also in this story Gothel is a combination of General Ross and the Abomination from the movie... so hold on tight the real action is coming soon, at least for this story.

 **[1]** Absolute Zero is the temperature measured at 0 Kelvin, at which nothing moves, not even electrons


	6. An Aberration

_HiccupHaddockIII: Glad that you love the last chapter. I wouldn't have them any other way. I thought it was fitting to have Rapunzel go almost ballistic on the driver, teaser: the frying pan she's referring to is not an actual frying pan..._

 _SharKohen: Yes and no, Gothel is slipping into madness and Rapunzel may be a contributing factor...maybe. Yes it's bad, very bad in deed. No Eugene did not give up his chance to be cured, he things he is..._

 _The Viking Stranger: Just hold on a little longer, the reveal to Eugene will come...eventually. I thought their 'moment' was fitting. The samples where all destroyed when Short didn't enter the cancellation code, so there are none... or are there none... But yes this is bad and only getting worse. Hopefully you don't bite too much on your nails..._

 **Chapter 6 An Aberration**

Gothel heads back inside and walks up to Short's home-lab. "Are you telling me you can make more like him?" she hears Müller asking him. Gothel keeps quiet; she wants the answer so much more than anyone.

Short is in one of his chairs, as Müller walks, "No! I've managed to sort out and put together a few pieces, but I cannot make the same Humpty Dumpty as it were. Fitzherbert is a fluke, a hiccup, an accident. There are too many unknowns, there's whatever he injected in himself, a possible genetic predisposition to resist gamma radiation, how the gamma radiation reacts with the injected substance," Short lists. "The goal is do it not only better but in a controlled, replicable way that also is reversible encase something goes wrong." Short informs, all the while Gothel gets to where she can knock out Müller.

Not noticing the general behind him, Müller starts, "So Fitzherbert's the only-" but is quickly cut short as a frying pan knocks him out. Gothel discards the frying pan as Müller falls to the floor.

Looking down at the lieutenant and then to the professor, "Good help is so hard to come-by." She then pulls a knife out and puts the point to Short's nose. "Now let's get down to business."

"Knife!" Short squeaks in panic, but after a second, "Um...so... what...um..." Short tries to speak.

"What you got out of Rider, I want it." Gothel answers, her face is starting to go pale, as if her body is start to drop from a high. She takes a step back.

Short slowly gets up and takes a good look at Gothel, "You look like you've got a little of that in you already..." he muses.

"It's not enough, I need more. You've seen the power that Rider has as that." Gothel replies, she keeps her knife in hand but lowers it to her side.

"I have, and it's beautiful, god-like." Short says still in awe of what he witnessed when Eugene transformed.

"Yes, and I've seen so much more of it and I want that power. I need that power. Give me that power." Gothel says as her rush is starting to reach terminal velocity.

Electing to make sure Gothel knows what she's doing, "Well... General... while I am not saying I won't, but I don't know what you already have in you. The mix could beget... an aberration." Short states cautiously. She brings the knife back to his nose and he can tell she means to drive it all the way through him. "I didn't say I am not doing it, as a doctor and scientist I just had to make sure your consent was informed." He affirms and she puts the knife away, smiling as her plan is coming together.

After a short drive, Eugene and Rapunzel are loaded into a helicopter, its helipad located at the docks. He is coherent enough to be able to stand and slowly removes himself from the gurney. Upon standing from the gurney his hands are cuffed together in front of him. "I cannot believe that even after everything we've been through, you don't trust me," He jokes, no one laughs. In the back with them are the Stabbington brothers and Major Sols, Rapunzel sitting opposite Eugene. The helicopter starts to take off, she brushes her bare right foot on Eugene's left shoe causing him to smile and the two reach out to hold the each other's hands as best they can. For them, it's the little things that matter right now.

Back in Short's lab, "No thanks to you and Fitzherbert, all my samples are gone and all I have left is the concentrated original of what Fitzherbert sent me to test." he says as he pulls out what he has left. "I'll have to-"

"Give it to me as is, all of it." Gothel demands, taking off her shirt to prepare herself for the infusion and then she gets on the table under the gamma emitters Short used on his test subjects. Short complies as he sets up the IV with the concentrated form of Eugene's blood. As the blood begins to enter Gothel, Short prepares the emitters and once all of Eugene's blood is in her and he starts it, once all of Eugene's blood is in her. After a minute of gamma exposure, Short notice Gothel's body growing, except unlike Eugene's growth, his theory was right about her becoming an aberration. Her skin slowly changes to an iron-sulfuric green. In many areas of her body it appears that the only thing below her skin is bones, despite the clear robustness of her form. Her chest flattens sharply to the point that it could easily be mistaken to be a man's chest. She breaks off the restrains and gets off the table.

As Short rushes to shut everything down, "This is what I tried to warn you about. I don't know what you got into yourself." He says, stopping to face the still transforming Gothel. "But it seemed to have work. Let's assume you don't understand a word I'm saying." Gothel's body continues to enlarge over various parts. Her vertebrae grow to the point where they are practically sticking out, along her knees and elbows spiky, bone-like growths emerge that when the limbs are straighten the growths cover the joints. She towers over Short at 8'5"."Now if you just get back on the table, I can fix this," Short says as he backs away trying to get out of his lab. Gothel laughs as she embraces the ecstasy of power she has obtained. She knocks Short to the side and starts her way out of the lab and the building; she still has a few scores to settle. As she stomps out, two soldiers see her and open fire, but neither stands a chance.

Outside the building, a chair is seen flying out a window and followed quickly by a soldier. He is sent flying hard into the wall of a nearby building. On the ground, a squad of soldiers turns their attention to window, "Delta 4 to Sols, something took out two of our guys. Lt. Müller and the General are still inside!" one reports over the radio. They move closer and see the transformed Gothel leaps down onto to the street and starts to walk away. "Come on! Move, move, move, move!" the soldier orders and the squad starts to follow the Aberration. As they get to street, one looks to their right as sees the damage done to the building while another soldier calls out "It's over here!" and they all go down the left. "What is that thing?" another soldier asks scared of what it could be. As they continue on, they take notice of cars crashing into each other and the sounds of screams in the distance. One of them was looking at soldier on the street, he was one of the two who fired upon the Aberration and paid with his life.

The squad leader speaks, "You drive." he points to one of the soldiers. "Let's go! Move, move!" he orders and they all fall back to a Jeep nearby. The leader speaks into the radio again, "Delta 4 to Sols! Something big just went off down here!"

In the helicopter, the pilot takes and holds the radio, "Major, you should hear this!" he says as Sols slides to the front of the helicopter and takes the radio.

"The Flynn is in the streets," Sols hears over the radio. "I repeat; the Flynn is in the streets."

Sols looks over his shoulder at Eugene, Eugene notices that and looks back. Speaking into the radio, "That's not possible, soldier. Fitzherbert is with me. Get a hold of yourself." Sols says into the radio back to the soldiers. "You get your stuff together. Now what is your position?" Sols asks.

The squad by this time had started up the Jeep and are pressuring the Aberration, "122th and heading west on Main!" the squad leader reports.

Back in the helicopter, "Turn us around." Sols orders the pilot and the pilot complies.

Noticing the change in direction, Eugene asks, "We're going back? Why are going back?"

"Damn it! Someone give eyes down there and somebody locate the general!" Sols orders.

"Major, the general was last seen going into Short's lab before that... thing came out. We can only locate Müller and Short and both appear to be knocked out." a soldier reports over the radio.

In the Jeep, "Yes, Sir," a soldier says as he turns on the camera on his helmet. "Camera is on, Sir. What was that?" he asks as he sees an explosion.

After about 40 seconds of borderline haphazard driving, the squad obtains a visual of the Aberration as it continues to cause destruction with people fleeing their cars and homes. In the helicopter, Eugene gets to his feet and looks at the same screen Sols is watching. Back in the streets the Aberration cause more ruin, laughing as the civilians scatter.

In the helicopter, "Um... guys, how did you get a hold of the serum?" Eugene asks, everyone then looks at Eugene as if to ask 'how do you figure that/how do you know'. "You two couldn't have lasted as long as you did in the skirmish with me if you didn't and look at yourself Pollox, you should be a quadriplegic in a wheelchair." Eugene answers their questions.

"It wasn't us, it was the old lady." Castor answers. Everyone fell silent.

"What did she do?" Rapunzel asks, but she doesn't expect an answer.

Back on the street, officers from the Corona Police Department fire upon the Aberration, but it is useless. She quickly closes the distance and bashes their vehicles and personnel around like toys. At the Jeep, one of the soldiers levels his rifle taking aim at the Aberration, but stops short of firing, "Do you think a rifle's gonna hurt that?" another soldier asks, remembering the skirmish with the Flynn almost two days ago. The two then go to the back of the Jeep and pull out an RPG. The one that spoke takes it, mounts it on his shoulder, aims and after saying 'Booyah', he fires. The RPG travels all the way to the Aberration but before it can hit her, she snatches it mid air and bashes it against her chest; it explodes creating a fireball, but no damage is sustained by the Aberration. She laughs evilly and charges at the Jeep.

Watching this, "Get out of there soldier! Fall back, fall back!" Sols orders.

The driver roughly shifts into reverse and slams the gas pedal to the floor trying to go full speed. The Aberration's speed increase the longer she runs and after about 30 seconds, she traps the Jeep against a building. She picks up a nearby car and before she slams it down full force on the four soldiers in the Jeep, "All good things come to those who wait." she says ominously. This is not meant for the four but instead for those that are watching. She hopes that Eugene is watching, but she's has no certainty that he's watching but also has no doubt he is.

Back in the helicopter the screen goes to static as the last thing heard were the screams of the soldiers. "Sir?" the tech asks, "Sir?" "You are now the senior most officer, it's your call."

After thinking for a couple of seconds, "Order everyone to bring everything they got to Castle Road, set a barricade before it gets to the Mayoral Manor. Tell Mayor Von Corona to order an evacuation for the city as far west as Flower Court." Sols orders. If this was anything else, it would be a great plan, but Eugene knows that's not the case.

"It has to be me. You have to take me there, let me off at Sun Blvd." Eugene says, knowing what must be done.

"What are you saying? You said you couldn't..." Rapunzel asks as she turns to Eugene. She doesn't finish her question.

"You're right, I don't know if I can, but perhaps I can aim it-" Eugene answers, but he is cut short.

"What if you can't?" Sols asks, "I'll admit it Rider, I never liked you but to let you go can endanger more people than what that...aberration is endangering already."

"You saw what happened back at the Equestrian campus, you know I... the Flynn is you're only viable option." Eugene points out. "Please?"

Sols turns to the pilot, "Land us near it."

"No, keep us high. We'll be sitting ducks until I transform. Open the back door and let me know when we're above Sun Blvd." Eugene says. Sols looks at him emotionless. "Please, Sols. I am sorry for all the times I've made you look bad, for that night with your daughter, for all I've done and said to you. But this is your only option." Eugene pleads. Sols looks over to Castor and nods. Castor gets up, walks over and presses the button to open the back of the helicopter.

As Eugene walks to the rear of the helicopter, he hears Rapunzel's voice, "Eugene! Eugene, stop! Stop! What are you doing?" She asks not far behind him. "Think about this! You don't even know if you'll change!" she points out. As Eugene turns to face her, "You don't have to do this! Please, this is insane!" She continues not far from breaking down into tears.

"Blondie, I've got to try." Eugene says. The two kiss.

After they break, "Remember when you took me to see the floating lanterns, that the beautiful thing about dreams is that you can always find a new one." Rapunzel asks, Eugene nods, "Please I don't want to look for anything after you."

"Neither do I, but I am not doing this for me, you or Sols... I am doing this for your kids." Eugene replies. Shock appears on Rapunzel's face upon hearing his words. "Let the strife be in my day, so that they can know nothing but Peace. I love you." Eugene leans back and allows himself to fall out of the helicopter. After 10 seconds of falling, he tries willing himself to transform. After noticing no change, "Oh sh..." he says as he plummets into street, causing a human size crater in it. Rapunzel looks on in horror.

After nearly fifteen seconds, when it seems that all hope is gone, something emerges from the rabble, it's the left hand of The Flynn. It takes about twenty seconds, but the Flynn is on his feet and roars at the Aberration.

The Aberration looks and sees the Flynn, "Rider." she states and the two starts out walking towards each other but rapidly pick up speed to a full charge. The Aberration, however, lowers her torso so that she can get the Flynn in the chest. This causes the Flynn to ultimately be sent flying and tumbling back. Clearly while the procedure only suppressed that one episode, it's still affecting the Flynn. The Aberration walks to where she sees the Flynn stumbling. Laughing at him, "Come on." she taunts. The Flynn looks around and sees an abandoned car. He rips it into two pieces and makes something akin to boxing gloves with them.

While he makes the gloves, the Aberration charges, but this time The Flynn has the advantage as he pounds her, forcing her onto her back and into the ground. But the 'gloves' only last so long and soon The Flynn is down to his own fists. "Is that all you got?" The Aberration asks tauntingly and as The Flynn is about to punch her, but she kicks him with both her legs, sending him flying up and through several buildings. The Aberration then gets back on to her feet and charges to the building, once there she starts climbing it to where the Flynn had landed.

Unbeknownst to the two, Sols had ordered the helicopter to not be far from the duel, hopefully to tip the scales in the Flynn's favor. Looking from over the gunner's right shoulder, "Use the gun, soldier! Give him some help!" he orders.

"Which one?" the gunner asks.

"Help the gray one! Cut the green one in half!" Sols orders, clarifying things. The gunner opens fires.

The Aberration is hit with several bullets before she turns, "Sols!" she concludes and turns away from her search. She climbs the rest of the wall and jumps on to the roof and starts running.

Watching the results, "LEAD! SOLDER, LEAD! LOOK AT WHERE IT'S GOING AND FIRE AHEAD OF IT! NOT WHERE IT IS!" Sols yells. The gunner obeys. Muttering to himself, "Who teaches these people how to shot?" Sols asks rhetorically.

As The Aberration runs along the rooftops, The Flynn's flight finishes as he collides into a garbage dumpster. After a few seconds he looks up as he hears the gunfire and sees the Aberration jump onto the next roof. He knows he must get up there and back into the fight.

Back in the air, "Keep your fire on it!" Sols orders and the gunner does not let up the hail of bullets. The Aberration manages to get behind a rooftop structure the gunner cannot fire through. Just when The Flynn arrives on the rooftop in question, he notices The Aberration trying to jump and grab onto the helicopter and charges at her to stop her. Just as The Aberration leaps into the air, he grabs a hold of her waist and causes them to plummet, but not far or fast enough as she is able to grab the bottom of the helicopter. As The Flynn struggles to get the Aberration to let go, the helicopter pilot misjudges his distance and he damages his rear propeller on a sign. As the pilot tries to correct, the helicopter spins out of control and after 20 seconds the helicopter, The Flynn and the Aberration land in a condemned part of the docks. The Stabbingtons are knocked out, the pilot, tech and gunner are killed and Sols and Rapunzel, while still conscious, are far from ideal.

Inside the helicopter, it takes Rapunzel about forty seconds to be able to help anyone else. She first does a quick check of the others in the helicopter and goes to Sols first, "Are you hurt? Here let me help you." she says as she helps Sols to his feet, even though the Stabbingtons may need more assistance, but getting Sols out will make things easier.

Outside the helicopter, the Flynn watches. There is not much he can do, but it appears Rapunzel's got it. It has been a minute since the crash and emerging from the other side of the helicopter is the Aberration, who jumps onto it. She growls at the Flynn and then leaps at him. Upon contact she drives him into a wall. At this time, Rapunzel is able to find a way she can get everyone out. What she doesn't notice is the leaking fuel tank and the sparks coming from the damaged top propeller shorting out.

The Flynn sees this but the Aberration is able to force him off the ground. For ten seconds, The Flynn tries to punch and kick the Aberration off him, but her arm on his neck gives her control. Control she emphasizes by mocking him, "You don't deserve this power! Now reap what you sow!" She pulls her arm back and drives the bone-like growth at her right elbow down into The Flynn's chest. He howls in pain. The Flynn however is able to see how bad the situation is for Rapunzel.

Rapunzel is no means a helpless, hapless damsel in distress, but given how the helicopter crashed, it's a struggle to get out on her own, let alone with the walking-wounded Sols. Just now she sees the fuel and the flying sparks. She looks to The Flynn, her face is sad, not the kind that means she's asking for help but to say 'goodbye'. The Flynn sees this, and something snaps in him. After ten more seconds, he finds the strength to force The Aberration off him. He head-buts her and throws her into the wall she pinned him against.

Just as a spark finally makes its way to ignite the fuel, the Flynn claps his hands with all his might as fast as he can. This causes a shockwave in the air that forces the fire out in seconds. The force, however, does knock Rapunzel and Sols back from the opening, but it does another good thing, it wakes up the brothers. As the three men get their bearings, Rapunzel is able to get to the opening. She looks past The Flynn and sees that the Aberration is back on her feet. "EUGENE LOOK OUT!" she shouts at the top of her lungs. The Flynn turns too slow and gets whacked and sent flying by an anchor with chain. As The Flynn gets back on to his feet, he is knocked again and The Aberration swings the anchor and chain again. He cannot focus enough to get back up.

Turning her attention to the helicopter, The Aberration starts swinging the chain around to build up momentum for when she brings the anchor down. As Rapunzel, Sols and The Stabbingtons try to get out, "Oh Boys... any last words?" she asks and just as she's about to bring the anchor down.

" **I...SMASH!"** The Flynn roars and with everything he has, he smashes the ground causing a small fissure to travel where The Aberration is standing. She loses her footing and the anchor comes down on her head. He charges her and takes the chain to wrap it around her neck. The Aberration does not let him do it easily as they scuffle for thirty seconds and a few times she is able to get him off her, but the Flynn had won.

As The Flynn's about to both choke her and rip her head off with the chain, "EUGENE STOP!" Rapunzel shouts. The Flynn stops and pants looking at Rapunzel. At this moment, the rest of the forces arrive and with them, officers of the Corona Police Department. While they keep their fingers near the triggers, they hold their fire, unsure which one to fire on or their orders.

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Sols orders. He knows things will only back fire once the first shot is fired. Seeing that few other ways out, The Flynn let's go of the chain and lets the Aberration collapse to the ground. He does however make a point of his dominance by stomping on her chest and giving a roar. All the soldiers and police lower their weapons in shock. The Flynn then uses his foot to turn the Aberration over and making sure she can harm no one, he stomps with all his might right between the shoulders. The force breaks her back, forcing several vertebrae out of alignment and snapping the spinal column. The Flynn then kicks the Aberration to land at the feet of Sols and the Stabbingtons.

Cautiously Rapunzel approaches the Flynn, she needs to calm him down. As she just close enough, "It's okay." she says and reaches out her right hand.

The Flynn raises his right hand and brings his right index finger to her cheek, catching one of her tears, " **Ra..Ra..Rapun...Rapun...Rapunzel**." The Flynn tries to say.

"Yes, it's me." Rapunzel response with a happy laugh as he knows Eugene is somehow making his way through the Flynn. She pauses for a second, " _Flower gleam and..._ " Just as she starts to sing a helicopter light shines on The Flynn.

"GET THAT CHOPPER OUT OFF HERE!" Sols orders, and a few men run around to set up a way to contact the pilot. Yet this is all too late, The Flynn in a panic growls and starts to run. He doesn't look back; he's acting on pure instinct. After thirty seconds the helicopter loses him in the destruction caused by the fight with the Aberration.

* * *

About two weeks later in the office of the former General Gothel's, agents of M.O.O.N., in fact most of these agents are the Snuggly Ducklings, are collecting all of General Gothel's things and among the agents supervising them is Rapunzel. Most of the stuff is either of no importance or stuff M.O.O.N. already has. The files on everyone Gothel had surveyed to find Eugene are the only things actually worth taking to be incorporated in M.O.O.N.'s data bank, expect that M.O.O.N. already had more detailed files. Well except for one person, Dr. Vanellope Von Schweetz. M.O.O.N only has public domain information on her, there's not much more in Gothel's file, but Dr. Von Schweetz maybe someone to keep an eye on. Just than a beep comes from Gothel's computer, Rapunzel goes to it and sees that there are two blueprints; they were of a miniature arc-reactor and a neurotransmitter. "Sir, should we print out the blueprints?" an agent, Heather, asks Rapunzel. Rapunzel stares at the documents for a few more seconds. "Um, Supervisory Special Agent Dr. Von Corona, Sir?" Heather asks again. Rapunzel deletes both the translated and untranslated copies of both blueprints and erases them from the computer and from Gothel's email account.

"What blueprints, Agent Hill?" Rapunzel asks innocently.

"Sir, I am still just a junior-probational agent. But with all due respect, you know the director said to collect..."

"First He said nothing about Hiccup Haddock or Hiro Hamada, second only the file on Dr. Von Schweetz is the only fruit not from the poisoned tree, and third these are preliminary. Let's allow the two to fine-tune and improve on these designs."

"Yes, Sir. You do know that this will take you out of the Assistant Director position candidacy?" Heather asks as she walks away from the desk.

"I never wanted the position; I am happy where I am. Besides I know you will make a great assistant director and given time as assistant director, you can be the next director." Rapunzel replies, just then on the TV in the hallway. "And now, Mr. Henry Haddock has prepared a statement. He will not be taking any questions. Thank you." the announcer says. And Hiccup takes the stand.

"Thank you for being here on such short notice, now many will ask what happened recently near the dockside last week, well due to some technical malfunctions involving several prototypes..."

"Excuse me Mr Haddock but do you really expect us to believe that?" a young female journalist said cutting Hiccup's speech off, to which set off murmurs traveling throughout the room.

Hiccup appears to pause for moment,"Well you see the truth is..." he then pauses again as he looks around the room as all wait patiently to carry on. He looks down at something on the podium."The truth is..." he continues and stops as he looks back up and gives a toothy grin as the microphones zoning in to get what he is about to say. "I am the Iron Fury" he finishes and everyone is stumbling to be the first to ask Hiccup the first follow up question.

Rapunzel watches the live broadcast. "In six months or so, that's going to be my next assignment." she comments just above a whisper.

"Sir?" Heather asks taken aback.

"Alright, folks lets finish up." After everyone clears out so that the next person to take the office can start putting his or her stuff in, Rapunzel takes out her civilian cell phone and looks at the most recent picture she took with it, it's of her and Eugene. She gives a soft smile. Now all she needs is a picture of Eugene and the twins. But business first, _Okay cover position: newly hired paralegal, now for my alias..._ Rapunzel thinks as she is the last to leave.

* * *

Two days after M.O.O.N. cleared out recently promoted Colonel Rittmeister Sols' new office of it's former occupant's affects; the decommissioned and pending court marshall General Gothel. Sols has elected to indulge himself for once in his life, a Cuban cigar and Scotch on the rocks at the bar of his favorite restaurant. "You know that those are illegal." comes the voice of a youth.

The colonel turns and looks at the youth. The boy must be 16 going on 17, he has a mess of auburn hair and forest green eyes. His walk is a little off, a limb in his left leg which makes a metallic clink when it makes contact with the floor. "The laws changed about a week ago. So what do I owe the pleasure to met with the young Mr. Haddock? You look better in your suit, by the way and I don't mean the one you're in currently with the jacket and tie." Sols comments as takes a sip of his Scotch.

"First congratulations are in order on your promotion. Here is our card. Being our new person of contact, P.O.C. for selling our products to the US. Army and the person who makes the call if our or our competition's products are purchased." Hiccup says giving Sols the new Haddock Industry business card, with his name right next to Stoick's. As Sols accepts the card and looks it over, "Second, I am actually here for something or rather someone else." Hiccup starts.

"I am not chasing Rider any more. Sorry you know him as Fitzherbert, after he went legit. Anyway, I spent too much of my life obsessed with capturing him. Best of luck with your own search and the Guardian initiative... thing." Sols says as he turns back to face the bar. "Before we carry on this conversation, how did you learn that Rider is that thing, the so called 'Flynn'?" Sols asks.

"Director Emanuel Nials of The Ministry of Official and Obscene Nature, M.O.O.N., briefed me on what happen in Corona, PA and everything that lead up to it." Hiccup answers as he takes a stool next to Sols. "How do you know about the Guardian initiative, if I may know, Colonel?" Hiccup asks the colonel.

Sols takes another drink of his Scotch. After his drink, "Agent Coulson of M.O.O.N. was with me about half an hour ago asking about searching for Rider too. Coulson mentioned the Guardian initiative and asked what I thought about Rider being part of it. I gave him the same answers I gave you." Sols says and takes and smokes his cigar for a bit.

"If you were going to look, where would you start?" Hiccup asks Sols. Sols stops his smoke, exhales and takes another drink of his Scotch.

Fin

-Roll Credits-

-Writer-

Foxmorgorth

-Beta-readers-

Rumbling Night Cutter

Sousuke Tenki

supersandman86

-Starring Voices-

Zachary Levi as Eugene 'Flynn Rider' Fitzherbert

Mandy Moore as Rapunzel

Donna Murphy as Gothel

Brad Garret as Hook-Hand

Jeffery Tambor as Big-Nose

Richard Kiel as Vladamir

M.C. Gainey as Rittmeister Sols

Ron Perlman as Pollox Stabbington

Paul F. Tompkins as Eros Short

John DiMaggio as Castor Stabbington

Nathan Greno as Gretel Fetcher & Corman Müller

with

Mae Whitman as Heather Hill

Kelly Macdonald as Merida Dunbroch

and

Jay Baruchel as Henry 'Hiccup' Haddock

Big thanks to all you readers

But one more thing, much like Marvel Studios, there is a post credit or in this case epilogue:

Eugene has walked into a deep wooded area, he is now in the Black Forest, it has been weeks since left Corona and his last 'Flynn' incident. He had travel discretely since then either by foot or as temporary under the table worker on boats, from Pennsylvania into New York, to Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, England, France and now here in Germany. His goal is Nepal where he can hide or be mistaken for a yeti, despite and in spite of U.S. searching in the Afghanistan-Pakistan area and where the plants Professor Short sent him grow naturally in abundance. He takes a moment to try something new, instead of trying to prevent a transformation, figure out at what point he can push his anger or be pushed before he transforms. He gets into a meditative pose and focuses on the one thing that makes him the angriest, it's not Gothel, it's not people firing at him, it's not any one has done against him or Rapunzel, no what angers him the most is one of his own actions; his hurting and abandoning of Rapunzel when he first transformed. After three seconds he senses that his eyes have flash a very distinctive gray, but his body doesn't transform, even though he knows he's very close to it, but he's not there. "So that's the trick." He muses as he gets back up, and renews his journey.


End file.
